


L'appel du Vide

by twoheartedalien



Series: WidowTracer Series [1]
Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Cheating, F/F, Infidelity, Pre-Recall, Smut, Tracer Is a Useless Lesbian, pre-widowmaker
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-25
Updated: 2017-08-25
Packaged: 2018-12-19 14:47:02
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 23,642
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11899959
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/twoheartedalien/pseuds/twoheartedalien
Summary: Lena "Tracer" Oxton meets the Frenchwoman, Amélie Lacroix in Switzerland before the Slipstream and before Widowmaker. Lena develops feelings for a married woman and it all goes to hell from there.





	1. Chapter 1

Lena Oxton groaned as she slowly padded her way to the locker room of the Overwatch gym. She had been living at the Swiss Headquarters for Overwatch for a few months now ever since she was recruited into the Slipstream program by Jack Morrison. Logically, she had known what kind of work it would be, but living through the constant training that the Slipstream project was dealing out was something else.

  
Lena had planned to take her shower and head back to her quarters for a nap until she spotted a woman on one of the treadmills that she had never seen on base before. It took her a moment before she realised she was openly gawking at this woman’s ass and her legs and forced herself to look away. The woman was tall with very well defined legs that seemed to go on for miles. She had long dark hair pulled into a tight, high pony tail that ran down the most of her back and had gorgeous ivory skin that seemed to have no blemishes from where Lena stood. The pilot couldn’t see this woman’s face from where she stood but she had no doubt that it would be just as flawless as the rest of her. Lena let herself have one more lingering look before forcing herself into the locker room before she did anything to embarrass herself.

  
Tracer quickly stripped of her workout gear and wrapped a towel around herself before heading into the showers to clean off and leaned against the tile wall, letting the hot water trickle down her back to relax her muscles. Despite her exhaustion she managed to push herself through washing her hair and cleaning her body. After nearly falling asleep against the tiles she gathered the energy to turn off the water and cover herself back up with the towel. She began to redress herself at a sluggish pace when she felt a woman take a seat on the bench beside her.

  
She looked up from tying her shoes to the woman who sat beside her, it was the woman from the treadmill with the fantastic legs, wrapped up only in a towel and fresh from a shower herself. Lena caught her stare lingering again and felt her cheeks burn. Her suspicions about the flawlessness of the woman’s face were confirmed now that she got a chance to look up close.  
“You’re the new hot shot pilot for the Slipstream, non?” The woman asked with a lilting French accent, surprising the pilot. Lena looked back at her and felt her face flush again under the direct gaze of this woman’s intense hazel eyes. _Of course this woman has an accent like that, this woman is unfairly hot._

  
“Uh, yeah, that’s me,” Lena chewed her lip for a moment before extending a hand to her, “Name’s Lena.” The woman took her hand before responding, shaking it slightly. Lena had to remind herself to let go of her hand.

  
“My name is Amélie.” The Frenchwoman smiled warmly at her, “I am new to living here in Switzerland and haven’t spoken to many people here yet, but even so I have heard a lot about you. Everyone is impressed by you it seems.” Lena gave a nervous laugh in response and found herself blushing yet again. Something about this woman seemed to turn Lena into a blushing teenage girl again. _Pull yourself together, Oxton._

  
“People are far too kind.” Tracer stood up from the bench and began packing her gym bag with her used gear as Amélie turned to dress herself.

  
“I think you do not give yourself enough credit, people wouldn’t give you so much praise if you didn’t deserve it, chérie.” Lena felt herself flush again and her heart rate pick up at the pet name, silently thanking the universe that she had been turned away from the Frenchwoman when it had been said. She probably didn’t know Lena spoke French and knew what that meant.

  
The pair got to talking, standing in the hallway outside the gym. Lena found out that Amélie was a ballet dancer and had just recently moved to Geneva, it didn’t exactly explain her connection to Overwatch but Lena didn’t want to push just yet. Lena pulled out her best game, her best flirting. She complimented the Frenchwoman on the dress she had put on after her workout which had earned her a small chuckle and the use of that damned pet name again.

  
“Would you like to have coffee sometime or something, luv?” Lena had barely gathered the courage to ask the woman out without making a fool of herself. Amélie gave her a gentle smile and had opened her mouth to respond when a man Lena recognised as the agent Gérard Lacroix came around the corner. The agent smiled at Amélie before slipping an arm around her waist and pressing a kiss to her temple. He then turned to face Lena who was beginning to feel jealousy bubble inside her.

  
“The infamous Tracer! I see you have met my wife, Amélie.” Lena did her best to fight a bright flush rising to her ears. She had been shamelessly flirting with a married woman, a woman who was married to one of the agents she worked with. Lena managed a nervous chuckle and rubbed the back of her neck, just barely catching the knowing smile on the Frenchwoman’s face.

  
The married couple discussed dinner plans back and forth in French in front of Lena while she pretended not to know what they were saying , suddenly finding something interesting to do with her phone. She looked back up at Amélie as Gérard gave his wife a parting kiss before walking down the hall away from them.

  
“Sorry about that, chérie.” Lena’s heart fluttered again at the pet name. _Stop, goddamnit, she’s married_. “I would very much like to get coffee.” She pulled out a scrap of paper from her handbag and a pen, scribbling down her phone number and putting it in Lena’s hand. “Text me a time that suits you and we’ll meet.” The Frenchwoman gave her a quick kiss on either cheek before heading down the hall after her husband leaving Lena standing alone outside the gym with a hand pressed to her cheek. _Bloody hell._

_x_

                                                                                                                                            

A week after Lena had met Amélie for the first time in the Overwatch gym they had gone through with going to coffee together. She _certainly_ had not spent the majority of the time with her staring past Amélie so she wouldn’t have to look her directly in the eye. Lena had used the opportunity to prod the Frenchwoman with every surface level question she could ask her and mentally hoarded all the answers she could get from her. She found it was easiest to get Amélie to talk when she asked questions about her job as a ballet dancer even if she had almost no clue what she was talking about half the time when she answered her questions.

  
What Lena had picked up and remembered though, was that she was an avid reader. Amélie talked about spending a lot of her time, when she wasn’t dancing or in the gym, in the library at Headquarters. The dancer had mentioned a specific book that she had been looking for but couldn’t find it even in the massive library back at base. It was some French book that she had never heard of before. When Amélie had gone to the bathroom, Lena borrowed a pen from Amélie’s handbag and wrote the name of the book and the author on a napkin before shoving it in her pocket for later.

  
In the days that followed their meeting for coffee, Lena began searching for the book. She wasn’t exactly sure why she felt so determined to find this book for her; it certainly was not because she had a crush on her, a married woman. Lena first scoured the internet to see if any online shop could possibly have a copy. When that failed, Lena began going through the listings for any book store in the area, calling them up to see if they possessed a copy of it. It took nearly forty phone calls over several days but she managed to find one bookstore over two hours away that had a copy, Lena immediately placed a hold on the book and tried to figure out how she was going to get there to buy it.

  
Lena had only an hour before she had to go back to the training grounds on base for the afternoon, but she figured if she told them she wasn’t feeling well she would have a chance to disappear for the afternoon and get the book. She would be able to get back to her quarters before dark if she was lucky. Lena pursed her lips and considered her options before she picked up her phone and let the Slipstream team know she wouldn’t be coming back that afternoon. They, of course, believed her as Lena had not once in her time at Overwatch or with the RAF called in sick even when she actually was.

  
The pilot picked the least conspicuous street clothing she had in her wardrobe before heading downstairs and made her way out of the base, taking care to avoid any of those working with her on the Slipstream. Once out of the building she made her way to the nearest train station in record time to catch the train she had seen in the listings online. The rest of her trip went without a hitch, the train ride was long and boring but she arrived in one piece in another part of Switzerland, paid for the book and managed to return, as she had suspected, before dark. Lena texted Amélie the following day to ask when she was next available for coffee and they made plans to meet two days from then.

  
She met Amélie at the same café they had coffee at last time. Lena had arrived slightly early and sat nervously at the table, fiddling with her fingers under the table. Now that she had two days to sit with what she had done for Amélie by getting her the book, she was afraid of how it would come across. She had no chance to back out due to panic when Amélie sat down across from her.

  
“Salut.” She said with a smile before bringing the cup of coffee she must have gotten from the front counter on her way in to her mouth.

  
“Hiya, luv.” Lena replied before digging through the backpack she had brought with her and left under the table, better to get this over with then, “I got you that book you said you were looking for.” She continued before placing it on the table in front of the Frenchwoman who choked slightly on the coffee she was sipping. She cleared her throat and gave Lena an incredulous look.

  
“Lena, I’ve been looking for that book for months. However did you manage to find it?” She asked while picking up the book off the table, inspecting it closely as if to make sure it was actually real. Lena never understood the value of the book, why Amélie would have wanted, other than it being very old and French.

  
“You said you’d been looking for it so I wanted to try my hand at it. Called a few places and finally found some far off small bookstore that had a copy.” Amélie narrowed her eyes slightly and raised a perfectly manicured brow.

  
“How many calls is a few?”

  
“I dunno… Maybe like forty?” She knew the exact number but there wasn’t any point in saying it.

  
“Thank you, you shouldn’t have.” Amélie said with a warm smile that made Lena feel a little dizzy before she stood up from her chair and reached across the table to bring Lena into a hug before pressing a brief kiss to her cheek. “Merci.” She thanked Lena again. Lena decided that she was going to do the Frenchwoman more favours if that was the outcome of it.

                                                                                                                                    _x_

Lena quickly began to befriend Amélie after their coffee dates. She knew that Amélie was married and any feelings she ever had for the Frenchwoman would be unrequited but that didn’t mean she couldn’t be friends with her. She had found out through their meetings for coffee that she spent a lot of her free time in the Overwatch library because of the massive collection of books they had. So Lena would sit with her as she read or skimmed through books to find out if it was something she would want to try whenever their schedules matched up. She even gave some of the aviation books Lena owned a try at one point when Lena suggested them.

  
Lena would ask her questions about her career in ballet and listen intently, Amélie in return would ask her about her time in the RAF and the Slipstream project and Lena would try to answer what she could. A lot of it was classified but Amélie seemed to understand, she was married to Gérard who was an Overwatch agent, after all. Over the several weeks, Lena went from seeing Amélie once or twice a week to seeing her almost every day and texting frequently whenever they didn’t see each other. Amélie had become Lena’s closest friend in Geneva quickly and Lena had even gotten to know Gérard a little better in that time as well seeming as she was constantly hanging around his wife. She tried her best not to get to know him to well to assuage the guilt she felt for having a massive crush on his wife. It didn’t help that Gérard seemed to be a nice guy.

  
One day, Amélie came back with Lena to her quarters after the pilot had suggested that she read a book that she owned a copy of. Once back in her quarters Lena had trouble finding where she had left the book and began to search through the small wardrobe she had, she was sure she still had a copy of it somewhere. Amélie stood behind her, watching as she searched and making snarky comments about how if she kept her quarters clean that maybe she would be able to find her things.

  
“Oh, non. Chérie, you’re coming with me.” Lena looked up at her with a puzzled expression, putting a halt to her search through her wardrobe. Since they met, Lena had gotten better at hiding her reaction to that particular pet name but it still left her heart pounding in her chest at the best of times, no matter how often she told herself that it was her just being friendly. _I’m too bloody gay for this._

  
“What, luv?” Amélie gave her a small smile before stepping forward and pulling out some of her clothes and highlighting the holes she had worn into them some time ago before placing them onto Lena’s bed.

  
“Your clothes have holes in them and you don’t even have that many clothes to start with. I am taking you shopping. You’re done with your training for today so I will text Gérard and tell him not to expect me until later.” Amélie said before gesturing with her head for Lena to get up and follow her, taking steps towards the door.

  
“It’s okay, luv. Don’t need many clothes, almost always in uniform anyways. Besides, the holes ain’t that bad.” Amélie only arched her brow before stepping back to the bed, picking up an orange sweatshirt and held it up to Lena before sticking her hand through the massive whole in the side of it.

  
“No arguing, chérie.” She said, grabbing the tip of Lena’s ear between her thumb and forefinger and began dragging her along, out of the pilot’s quarters.

  
Amélie took Lena in her car (which, of course, was some expensive French brand she didn’t recognise, this woman didn’t do cheap) to the nearest shopping centre, just a few minutes away from Headquarters. The Frenchwoman dragged her from shop to shop, picking out items of clothing that she insisted would suit Lena before shoving her into the changing rooms and making her model them for her. At the first shop, Amélie pulled out her credit card and refused to let Lena pay for her own new clothing despite her loud protests.

  
“Lena, ma chérie, let me do something nice for you for once.” Lena blushed slightly and pouted like a child as the dancer paid for her clothing. At the end of it all, Lena was walking around with five large bags filled with new clothes, including a new scarf that Amélie insisted she somehow needed, not that Lena could see it. “You’re coming with me to dinner since I’ve already left Gérard by himself for the evening.” The way the Frenchwoman said it made it clear that it wasn’t a request. She always got what she wanted in the end, especially when it came to Lena.

  
Amélie ended up taking her to a restaurant far nicer than expected, getting her to change into one of her new outfits before they entered. It was a plain, white button down shirt and a pair of black jeans. The Frenchwoman spent the dinner prodding Lena for information, asking questions about her personal life and her past, claiming that she shared everything with her so she wanted to know more about Lena. Lena was not afraid to discuss her love life (or lack of one, Amélie was too busy occupying her mind for that), they had done that in the past, but it was the first time discussing her childhood with Amélie. The pilot had purposefully kept that close to the chest, wanting to avoid the pity that always came with being honest about it.

  
“I was orphaned at a young age; don’t know if they didn’t want me or whatever. Spent most of my life in foster homes until I joined the RAF at the first opportunity to get away from it all, couldn’t keep living like that.” Lena averted eye contact until Amélie’s hand reached across the table and covered her own. When a light flush dusted her cheeks, she caught a small smirk cross Amélie’s face before disappearing as she spoke.

  
“I’m glad you told me, chérie. I’d like to know more sometime, whenever you’re ready.” There was a light brush of her thumb over the ridges of her knuckles. Amélie didn’t seem the least bit surprised by Lena’s history, but she also didn’t seem to pity her either.

  
At the end of dinner, Amélie once again insisted on paying for everything, not letting Lena anywhere near the bill despite how much Lena tried and protested. She eventually took Lena back to Headquarters and gave her two quick kisses, one to either cheek before letting her out of the car with the bags of her new clothes. The pilot watched in silence as she watched Amélie drive down the street.

  
Lena placed the shopping bags down at her feet, her hands shaking slightly and her heart hammering away in her chest. _Goddamnit Oxton. You’re in love with a married woman. This ain’t just a crush anymore._

                                                                                                              _x_

 

Lena was woken up on her day off to the buzzing of her phone against the wood of her bedside table. She groaned and forced her eyes open. Lena had never been a morning person, her military service had forced her into living as one by habit but every day off she got she would sleep well into the afternoon if she was allowed. The pilot pawed blindly at her phone and picked it up, peering at it through half open eyes. Once she had managed to read the message on her screen, she sat up. It was from Amélie.

  
_Amélie: Are you busy tonight, chérie?_ Lena rubbed at her eyes before typing out her reply.

  
_Lena: Don’t think I have anything planned, luv. Why?_ She typed back quickly before tossing her phone onto the bed beside her and tossing her arm across her face to shield her eyes from the light coming through the blinds. It was nearly midday but far too early for Lena on her day off. Her phone buzzed again, the sound muffled by her bed sheets.

  
_Amélie: I’m performing tonight and have a free ticket. Normally Gérard is the one who comes to watch but he’s away on a mission. Would you like to come?_ Lena’s breath hitched in her throat slightly. She had always wanted to see Amélie dance but hadn’t gotten up the courage to actually ask her before. It must have been a while since she was sent that message, having gotten lost in her own thoughts as Amélie sent her another.

  
_Amélie: If you aren’t interested that’s fine, you don’t have to say yes, chérie._

  
_Lena: No! I’m totally interested. What time?_

  
_Amélie: I’ll send you a car to pick you up at six._

  
Lena placed her phone back on her bedside table and put her hands behind her head, staring up at the beige, tiled ceiling. She had six hours before she would be picked up, that was plenty of time to go back to sleep. She pulled the bed sheets up to her neck and curled up in a ball before falling back to sleep.

  
It took two hours for Lena to realise she hadn’t asked Amélie what one would even wear to the ballet. She had never been to an event like this before but even so, she was fairly sure she wasn’t meant to turn up in jeans and a t-shirt.

  
_Lena: I totally forgot to ask, what do I wear tonight? Never been to a ballet before._ Lena began to panic when Amélie didn’t reply to her message. Growing up in foster homes had not exactly prepared her for some fancy ballet performance.

  
_Amélie: It’s a black tie event. Do you need me to buy you something to wear? I can have it sent over with the car._

  
_Lena: No, definitely not. I can figure it out myself, luv._

  
Lena scrambled to gather some clothes together, barely remembering her wallet on the way out. She only had another hour or so before the shops would close and she needed to get herself something nice to wear before then. After a frantic sprint from Headquarters to the closest store she knew of she had arrived half an hour before closing. The owner was kind enough to talk her through everything about buying a suit for the first time.

  
Thirty minutes later, the store closed and Lena was walking back to base with a garment back slung over her shoulder. She pulled her phone out of her pocket and checked the time; she had only two hours before she would be picked up. As she walked through the main entrance of Headquarters she passed by Dr Angela Ziegler. Lena had met her through the Slipstream project, Angela had been doing the medical exams on her as the project progressed to make sure that she was in good health throughout. She was a tall, blonde woman and a Swiss native, some super intelligent prodigy in her field from what Lena had been told.

“Lena, what’s that you’re carrying?” She smiled warmly down at Lena as they walked side by side through the base, the doctor’s heels clicking on the tiles.

“It’s a suit I just got from a place in town. Amélie invited me to come see her perform today.” Lena beamed back, unable to hide her excitement while talking about it. Angela gave a chuckle at the way Lena seemed to bounce between steps at the idea which caused Lena’s ears to burn.

  
“You’re certainly excited, hm?” Angela teased. The doctor was scarily perceptive and had figured out Lena’s crush on Amélie barely a few weeks after she first met her in the gym. She at least had the mercy to not tell Amélie about it, Lena knew the two of them were close.

  
“Oh, be quiet, luv. Just never been to a ballet before is all.” Lena darted her eyes up at the doctor, flush painting her cheeks, as the paused by the elevator that would take Lena back up to her quarters. Angela hummed as if she didn’t believe her before pressing the button to call the elevator for her.

“Enjoy yourself, Lena. Try not to embarrass yourself in front of her too much, hm?” Angela smirked at Lena before heading to the med bay, leaving Lena by herself and pouting.

  
Getting ready had been surprisingly easy until she went to tie the bowtie she was given and struggled. She did her best to remember what the shop owner had taught her but eventually gave up and searched online for tutorials otherwise she would be late. Lena managed to pull herself together enough to make her way out to the front of the base and waited for the car that Amélie said she would be sending. Lena rolled her eyes as she saw the car coming down the street, it was so Amélie. She couldn’t just order some regular taxi to come get her or give Lena instructions on how to get there herself, of course she would send some expensive car service where the entire interior of the car was leather and had all the newest gadgets installed. The way it could only be worse is if she had sent Lena a limo.

  
Lena spent most of the night being guided from place to place. She had been ushered into the car by a human driver, and that almost never happened anymore, they were mostly Omnics these days. It just showed how much Amélie had spent. From the car, she was lead into the massive hall which was flooded with people in much fancier clothing and who seemed to know what they were doing. It made Lena feel glad to have people helping her out; she would have been completely lost in it all.

  
She went through four whiskeys before the first intermission to calm her nerves; Amélie was as amazing as Lena had expected her to be and it made her glad that Gérard had been out of town and that Amélie had thought of her. She had a couple more drinks before the show ended and before she knew it she was being lead down the back area stair cases to the dressing rooms. Lena was left standing outside a door marked with the name Lacroix. She knocked briefly on the door and waited.

  
“Come in.” She heard Amélie call out. Lena fumbled with the door knob for a bit before entering. Amélie was sitting in a chair and putting on her shoes; she had changed out of her costume and was wearing her regular street clothes. Her lips turned up in a smirk at the sight of Lena in a tux. “You look very dashing, chérie. Did you enjoy the show?” Lena shifted uncomfortably in her blazer at the compliment given.

  
“Yeah, uhhh, I thought it was good. I mean, I didn’t know what was going on or anything but you looked great.” Lena smiled at her, feeling her face warm from embarrassment and the alcohol catching up with her. Amélie chuckled slightly.  
“So you’ve never been to the ballet before?”

  
“Yeah, not exactly many performances like that happening where I grew up. You went totally all out tonight, luv. The car, the VIP seat up in the box thing, all the drinks and people guiding me around. It was all a bit over the top.”  
“You really dislike it that much when I spend money on you?” Amélie raised her eyebrow at Lena, leaning back in her chair.

  
“It’s not that I dislike it, luv. Just makes me uncomfortable, not something I’m used to is all.” Amélie’s face softened at Lena’s words.

  
“I see. That gives me all the more reason to continue spoiling you, chérie.” She said before standing from her chair and pulling Lena into a tight hug, bringing Lena’s head against her chest as she stroked through her hair. The pilot tensed slightly for a brief moment before greedily giving into the touch, wanting to soak up each moment of contact that Amélie would give her.

                                                                                                _x_

 

Lena slipped into her quarters late at night; she had been out all evening at dinner and a movie with Amélie. The Frenchwoman had suggested it as Gérard was out of town and wanted to find a distraction for the night. Lena knew she must have been imagining it, that it was wishful thinking because she was mind-numbingly in love with Amélie, but there had been slight handholding, light brushes of her hand up her bicep and shoulder, flirtatious comments. For all Lena knew, Amélie was straight, she was married to a man for god’s sake. Not only that, but she was married. She was married!

  
The fact that she was married and probably straight didn’t deter the ideas in her mind. She tore her jacket off and tossed it over her desk chair, undoing her belt buckle and yanking her pants down her legs before taking a seat on the edge of the bed. It didn’t take long before she removed the glove on her right hand and ended up with her fingers between her thighs, rubbing circles around her clit. She was already slick with need, the ideas of taking the Frenchwoman to bed floating around in her head all night long. Her breath hitched in her throat at the thought of being on top of Amélie, her hands roaming over her body, her breasts and thighs, her mouth connecting with the ivory skin of Amélie’s neck. Her fingers picked up pace as she imagined leaving marks on her skin, the thrill of possibly getting caught with her, getting off on the idea of leaving marks just for Gérard to see.

  
Lena bit into the material of her glove on her free hand to muffle the noises she was beginning to make, the walls at Swiss Headquarters were thinner than they seemed, she knew from the many times she had heard other agents having sex in the rooms next to hers. Her hips bucked into her palm when her mind returned to the thought of settling between Amélie’s thighs, taking to her with her tongue. She wanted to hear Amélie moan her name, imagining hearing it moaned into her ear brought her to climax quickly. She took a few moments to gather her breath, settling the tremble of her thighs.

  
After pulling her pants back up, doing the buckle, the shame and the guilt settled back in now that the overwhelming need was met. Lena knew it was wrong to imagine a straight, married woman in this way over and over, this was hardly the first time and she doubted it would be the last. She would never force her feelings on the Frenchwoman but she also couldn’t move on either, stuck in some weird emotional limbo. Lena placed her head in her hands, clawing at her scalp as the tears began to run. How had she let herself fall so deeply in love with a woman she could never have? _Oxton, you idiot._

                                                                                                                                                                                      _x_

 

A few weeks later, Lena was having lunch in the lunch hall, taking a break from her training before returning for the rest of the day. Amélie had begun bringing her food on some of the days that she was on base before lunch, bringing Lena sandwiches and other snacks so she wouldn’t have to eat in the lunch hall. She insisted that Lena eat something homemade every once in a while but today the Frenchwoman couldn’t be found. Lena was brought out of her thoughts when Amélie sat down at the table across from her with a smirk on her face.

  
“Bonjour, ma chérie. How are you?” Lena managed to force down her mouthful before replying, trying her best not to make a fool of herself in front of Amélie.

  
“I’m good, luv. What do you need?” She asked with a smile, doing her best to remain calm. The smirk still resting on her face having an air of danger to it.

  
“It’s your birthday this Saturday, non?” Lena paused the forkful of food en route to her mouth before putting it back down.

  
“Yeah, how’d you know? I don’t remember telling you my birthday, luv.” She waggled her eyebrows at Amélie, attempting to tease her back for once but also wanting to know how she had managed to get hold of that despite her attempts to hide it. Amélie kept spoiling her as it was, she didn’t want to give the Frenchwoman an excuse.

  
“Winston is not very good at keeping your secrets, chérie. Do you have plans?” The look Amélie was giving her made her heart skip a few beats, if she had planned anything for Saturday, she would certainly cancel it for her.

  
“No, don’t normally do anything for my birthday.” Lena watched Amélie as she placed a key on the table and pushed it towards Lena.

  
“You have plans now, come over on Saturday at seven. You remember where I live, oui?” Lena nodded quickly in response, picking up the key that had been pushed towards her. “Á bientôt.” The pilot watched quietly as Amélie got up from the table and walked out of the lunch hall, leaving Lena dumbfounded. She hoped it wouldn’t be a surprise party of some kind; she hated the idea of that sort of thing.

  
On Saturday night, Lena nervously paced back and forth in her quarters, she had about twenty minutes before she had to finally leave otherwise she would be late. She decided to wear some of the clothes Amélie had bought her months ago, including the scarf wrapped around her neck. Lena had bought Amélie a bunch of flowers as a thank you for taking care of her and for whatever she had planned for her birthday. _That’s normal, right? Flowers to thank someone? Get it together, Oxton._

  
Thirty minutes later, Lena found herself standing outside the front door of the house Amélie lived in, attempting to fish the key she was given out of the pocket in her leather jacket. She wasn’t sure at first about whether to use it or to knock, she wouldn’t have given Lena the key if she wanted her to knock, _right?_ She unlocked the front door, tucking the flowers under her arm before stepping inside and closing the door behind her, locking it again.

  
When Lena turned around to face the hallway and living room, the lights were off but the room was lit up by candles. _How embarrassing, she and Gérard must be having some sort of romantic night and I got this all wrong._ Lena cleared her throat before calling out.

“Amélie, did I make a mistake? Do you want me to come back some other time, luv?”

  
“Non, ma chérie. Take a seat on the couch, I’ll be in soon.” Lena swallowed hard and tried to rack her brain for what might be happening here that _wasn’t_ what she was thinking. _She’s married._ She walked through to the living room and placed the flowers on the coffee table before taking a seat in the middle on the couch. The pilot nervously ran her hands up and down her thighs, trying to quell the sweat building up on her palms.

  
Amélie stepped out of the bedroom and into the living room, Lena’s jaw dropped at the sight of the dancer in black lace lingerie, very loosely covered by a sheer robe that only reached her mid-thigh. Lena let out a very undignified squeak at the sight, the Frenchwoman gave her a dark smirk and a low chuckle, knowing her plan to surprise the pilot had worked. Amélie crossed the room and in slow, graceful movements straddled Lena’s thighs. Lena looked down at the bra that Amélie was wearing and let out a low groan before tilting her head back to look away.

  
“You appreciate my lingerie, chérie?” Amélie murmured against the skin of Lena’s exposed throat, hovering her plump lips over her skin. “I bought them for your birthday.” Amélie took Lena’s hands and placed them on her ass.  
“W-What about-?” She stammered out, there wasn’t exactly much blood flowing to her brain in that moment. Words were hard.

  
“Non, chérie, you let me worry about that. I want you to enjoy your presents.” Amélie pressed her lips to Lena’s to prevent further protest, delighting in the way Lena’s hands began to grope her ass. She had picked out this set at the store knowing _exactly_ how it made her ass look, knowing from how often Lena would stare that it was her weakness. Amélie began kissing, sucking and nipping along the flustered pilot’s pulse point, tugging off the scarf she had been wearing and running her hands through the unruly spikes on Lena’s head.

  
Once Amélie was satisfied with the series of hickeys and lipstick smudges that marked Lena’s throat she stood up, taking Lena’s wrist and tugging her along behind her and to the bedroom. The Frenchwoman gave a quick shove to Lena’s chest, pushing her back first onto the bed before straddling her hips once more and began running her palms up and down Lena’s torso, groping her through her leather jacket.

  
Lena sat up slightly to help Amélie remove her jacket, shirt and bra between frantic, fervent kissing and tossed the clothing to the floor beside the bed. A shiver went up Lena’s spine at the low purr that Amélie let out at the sight of her breasts, nipples already hard. She let out a whimper at Amélie’s finger teasing her nipple before pinching it between her thumb and forefinger.

  
“Already a whimpering mess, chérie?” Amélie husked against her neck before letting out a low, dark chuckle that made Lena’s spine tingle, “Just as I suspected, you are definitely not a top, so submissive.” Lena began to squeak in indignation, trying to sit herself up and prove to Amélie that she could too be a top. Her protests were interrupted by her belt buckle being undone and her pants being tugged down to her ankles before yanking her shoes off, leaving her lying on the bed completely bare in front of Amélie.

  
Hot, plump lips were soon latched around her nipple, Amélie’s hands greedily roaming her thighs and groping her ass. The Frenchwoman began leaving marks on her breasts and sternum that matched those on her neck as she slowly made her way down her torso before settling between Lena’s legs, painted nails digging into the tops of Lena’s thighs as she brought her tongue to slick folds. The pilot groaned at the first run of her tongue, hips already bucking up to meet her. Lena’s head was spinning from how this night was going in a way she certainly hadn’t expected.

  
“Bloody hell.” She groaned, Amélie’s left hand leaving the top of Lena’s thigh and dragging fingernails down the flesh of her ass cheek. She was embarrassed by how swiftly the Frenchwoman was bringing her close to climax, she had never been this quick of a shot before now. The tongue circled around Lena’s clit, deliberately picking up pace to bring her to the edge before slowing down again, Lena letting out frustrated groans each time she did it. Amélie held down Lena’s hips with bruising strength, keeping the pilot from moving from exactly where she wanted her and causing Lena’s body to sing at the display of strength. Her hands found purchase in Amélie’s dark locks.

  
“Amélie, please.” She whimpered, “Stop it.” Three times she was brought close to orgasm only for Amélie to end up denying her.

“You want me to stop, mon chou?” Amélie cooed, pulling her face away from Lena’s crotch, giving the pilot a look at the slick on her lips and chin. Her brain blanked briefly at the sight.

  
“N-No! What the fuck, don’t stop!” Amélie chuckled before digging right back in, swiftly bringing Lena back to the cusp of orgasm for the fourth time that evening before pressing two fingers inside, and curling on the withdrawal. Lena’s chest was heaving, “Fuck, I’m close.”

  
Lena came moaning Amélie’s name loudly and without shame, her hands pawing at the Frenchwoman’s hair. The reality had turned out to be better than she had imagined in her most shameful and embarrassing fantasies. Amélie ended up giving her two more orgasms throughout the evening, refusing to let Lena return the favour until much later, after which Lena collapsed on top of Amélie in exhaustion, head pressed to her chest and her leg draped across her hips. The dancer softly pet at her hair as their breathing calmed.

  
“Enjoy yourself?” Amélie murmured with a smug smirk on her face, already knowing the answer to her question from the way that Lena was breathing.

  
“Wasn’t expecting that when I came over, luv.” She said, letting out a giggle as Amélie laughed.

  
“That’s the point of surprises, non?” Lena pressed a kiss to the middle of Amélie’s chest before looking up at her and making eye contact.

  
“’Course, luv.” She paused for a moment and licked her lips, “Don’t want to ruin the moment or anything, but last time I checked, you’re married. Why would you want to give me this for my birthday? How’d you even know this would be something I wanted?” Lena did her best to give Amélie a confident smirk back until she laughed so hard at what Lena had said that she snorted. The pilot’s ears burned from embarrassment while her heart fluttered at the sound of her laugh.

  
“You’re not exactly subtle, chérie. You turn a very cute red anytime I give you a compliment or do something nice for you.” She punctuated this by squeezing Lena’s cheeks, bringing forth the blush that she was talking about and a childlike pout. “I’ve known since we met how you felt about me,” The smile on her face dimmed as she sighed, “But as you said, I am married so I kept that to myself. My marriage… it’s complicated and not something you need to worry yourself with, mon chou.” She pressed a chaste kiss to Lena’s forehead.

“Is this meant to be a one-time thing just for my birthday? ‘Cause I don’t think I can go back after this, luv. It’s more than me just having a thing for you.” Amélie’s smile warmed as she ran her finger tips along Lena’s jaw.

  
“I can’t resist you, Lena,” The pilot shivered at the way she said her name, “I would love to say I have the restraint for this to be a one-time thing or for this to have never happened at all but I don’t. I feel the same way about you.” Lena let out a nervous laugh.

  
“I doubt you feel quite the same way, luv, but I’ll take it.” Amélie simply arched a brow at that comment but chose not to push on it.

  
“Come, chérie, I have other presents for you still.” She said as she pushed Lena lightly to get her to roll off her before grabbing her sheer robe from where it had been tossed to the floor earlier and covering herself with it. Lena scrambled after her, grabbing her underwear and the button down shirt she had worn.

  
“Other presents? Amélie, you can’t keep spoiling me like this. You buying me clothes all the time and bringing me lunch. I haven’t done anything to deserve it.” Despite her protests, she followed Amélie through the house and back to the living room as she pulled out presents she had hidden.

  
“It is not a matter of deserving, Lena. I will spoil you as much as I like, especially when you are so bad at taking care of yourself.” She made Lena sit on the couch before placing several wrapped gifts in front of her and taking a seat beside her, wrapping her arm around the pilot’s waist and resting her head on her shoulder. “Open them.” Lena paused for a moment, chewing on her lower lip before reaching forward and grabbing one of the gifts, giving into Amélie’s want to spoil her.

  
Once she had unwrapped all her gifts, she laid them out on the table in front of her. The Frenchwoman had gotten her a series of gifts that showed how closely she had been listening to every conversation that they’d ever had. An expensive watch that she had eyed once in a store window, a blue hoodie she had made a comment about while passing through a store, several books she had admitted to being curious about reading plus a brand new mug for tea to replace the one she had broken last week.  
“Amélie, this is too much, I’ve never gotten so many gifts at once before. That watch would have cost a fortune!” She pouted slightly at the older woman.

  
“All the more reason to give you everything you want, ma chérie. If you refuse my gifts, you’ll find them in your quarters.” Amélie smirked at her slightly before pressing her lips to a very fresh, tender mark on her throat, earning a whimper from the younger woman. “Let me spoil you some more.” She husked, pushing Lena down onto the couch, having her way with the pilot yet again that evening.

                                                                                                              _x_

 

How Lena had managed to get herself into this situation she didn’t know. Maybe it was the accent or the way that Amélie would smile at her. It didn’t matter, really, whatever the reason she was still lying underneath the bed belonging to both Amélie and Gérard Lacroix, trying to keep herself hidden. Amélie had told her that Gérard was out of town for a few days visiting family and had invited her over for dinner. The pair had barely made it through dinner before the clothes came off for the third time that week and it was only Wednesday.

  
What they hadn’t expected was for Gérard to return two days early without telling Amélie anything at all. The only warning they had received was the rustling of the front door as Gérard was unlocking it when Amélie was three fingers deep into Lena. She had scrambled off the bed in fear and slid under the bed, the only hiding spot that she could think of in the heat of the moment. It certainly beat jumping out the window and hiding outside while naked. Amélie had quickly kicked both hers and Lena’s clothing underneath the bed with her before taking her bathrobe off the hook and wrapping it around herself.

  
Lena tried to listen to the conversation the married pair were having by the doorway to the bedroom. While Lena did speak French, her fluency wasn’t good enough to be able to interpret it from so far away. She heard the mention of her name a few times but couldn’t discern more than that. The door to the bedroom closed and Lena could hear Amélie sit down on the bed beside where she had crawled underneath.

  
“Chérie, Gérard thinks that I am taking a shower, that should give you a few minutes in order to get dressed and you should be able to climb out the window.” Amélie murmured in a low tone, trying to avoid being overheard by Gérard through the bedroom door in case he happened to be nearby.

  
“We’re going to need to talk about this.” Lena whispered back as she began crawling back out from under the bed and quickly got dressed, not even bothering with all the buttons of her shirt or tying her shoe laces. “I’ll call you later.” She murmured again as she climbed out the pried open window and stepped out onto the patio beneath it before sneaking around the side of the house, making sure to duck under the windows to avoid being seen by Gérard at any point.

  
Lena managed to find her way back to base and hide herself away in her quarters. She sat on the edge of her bed with her head in her hands and let out a deep sigh. The guilt had been kept at bay through their clandestine meetings by not thinking about Gérard or any of the consequences if they had gotten caught, deciding to make the most of the moments she got with Amélie whenever she got them but things had suddenly gotten more real. Gérard was a nice guy and didn’t deserve what they were doing to him. She clenched her fingers around her hair and let out a frustrated groan. Lena fished her phone out of her pocket and began typing.

 

 _Lena: Are you free to talk?_ Lena watched her phone screen, patiently waiting for a reply when it buzzed.

  
_Amélie: Oui_. Lena then called her, taking a deep breath to calm her nerves and her shaking hands.

  
“Salut.” Amélie answered with her voice surprisingly even.

  
“That was a close one, luv.”

  
“Indeed it was.” There was a pause between the two of them, neither of them saying anything until Lena sighed.

  
“I’m feeling really bad, Amélie. I’m not going to stop seeing you unless you ask me to; I don’t think I could even if I really wanted to but… we definitely need to be more careful, luv.” Amélie made a noise that sounded like she agreed then let out a sigh of her own.

  
“Do not feel guilty about this, Lena. Don’t put this on yourself like I know you’ll want to.” Lena waited several moments to say anything back, Amélie’s words soothed her in a way that she felt like it shouldn’t. She was an adult and knew what they were doing was wrong but at the same time knew she wouldn’t be able to stop.

  
“Alright, luv.” Lena finally replied, it was her turn to try soothing Amélie’s guilt. She could tell that the older woman was feeling guilty about bringing Lena into this but also seemingly didn’t have the ability to cut her off. “Will I see you again soon?” Her mouth had seemingly moved on its own, they had only narrowly escaped being caught by Gérard less than an hour ago and here she was, already asking for more. Amélie let out a low chuckle, the mood lightening a bit.

  
“Soon, chérie. Unless you are going to cancel our plans for Friday after tonight?” Lena managed to smile a little at that.

  
“Definitely not, luv. I’ll see you then. Can’t wait.”

  
“Goodnight, chérie.” Lena could practically hear the smirk in Amélie’s voice.

  
“Night.” She replied before ending the call and placing her phone on the bedside table.

                                                                                                _x_

That Friday Amélie took Lena out off base, taking her on a typical date with dinner and a movie. Lena had let the Frenchwoman decide what the plan was for that night, it’s not like Lena minded what they did together anyway, she would take any opportunity to spend time with Amélie. She could have asked Lena to come over to do chores at this point and she would probably do it.

  
Amélie, of course, had booked reservations at an expensive restaurant in the city centre and had Lena dress up nice for it. The older woman’s expensive taste had grown on her, not that Lena would admit to it but after all of the expensive dinners and clothes over the months that they had been friends and then when it had become more, she could at least see why Amélie enjoyed it so much.

  
While in public, they had to remain relatively hands off. There was far too high of a chance that they might run into someone from Overwatch or someone who knows Amélie from her dancing but the pair certainly took advantage of the darkness involved in seeing a movie. While seeing a movie, they could finally be a lot bolder while in public. Lena let Amélie pick the movie, it didn’t matter what they were seeing as they never ended up watching it anyway. She didn’t want to think about how much money they had spent on movies that they didn’t watch. When Lena went to kiss her after the lights had dimmed but Amélie just pressed her fingers against her jaw and guided her face back towards the screen causing Lena to furrow her brow in confusion.

  
“Amélie, what’re you doing?” Lena murmured, a little disappointed that the older woman had guided her to watch the movie instead of taking up their usual activities. Her breath hitched in her throat as she felt Amélie’s lips ghosting over the skin on her neck and a palm running its way down her inner thigh.

  
“Just watch the movie, mon chou.” Amélie purred, causing Lena to swallow hard.

  
Lena kept herself facing the screen though she _definitely did not_ watch the movie like she had been told. Her mind was entirely too focused on the hand roaming up and down her thigh before eventually teasing at the waist band of her pants though never entering. She let out a low groan at the fact that she knew her neck would be covered in lipstick smudges.

  
“Amélie, fuck.” She whined before Amélie shushed her before moving her lips up Lena’s neck and to her ear.

  
“Be quiet or I’ll stop.” She threatened before pressing a kiss to the spot beneath her ear. Amélie continued her persistent teasing throughout the film, only removing herself from Lena when the credits rolled. She removed the scarf from around her own neck and tied it around Lena’s to cover the fresh marks she had given her.

  
After the recent scare at Amélie’s place they decided for once to return to base and stay in Lena’s quarters. Luckily it was late at night on a Friday, most were either in bed or off base. They had managed to make it almost all the way to the elevator without running into another person, staying separated from each other just in case they did anyway, when Angela left her office while only just finishing work for the day.

  
Angela made eye contact with Lena and then looked to Amélie, she swallowed hard before averting her eyes from the doctor. Angela watched the pair of them for a few moments before eventually turning and heading for the main entrance. Lena felt a pang of guilt inside, she knew the look the doctor had given her, she was probably suspicious of why Amélie was here so late at night.

  
Lena was dragged out of her thoughts once she had opened the door to her quarters, Amélie picking up just where she had left off, running her fingertips along the waistband of her pants and reigniting the heat in her belly. She pushed the thoughts of guilt out of her mind before forcing Amélie up against the wall beside her wardrobe. Her lips locked onto Amelie’s neck, toeing the line with how rough she was being, risking marking the older woman like she had always imagined. She greedily ran her hands up and down Amélie’s sides before settling on groping her ass, appreciating the tight jeans that the Frenchwoman had worn that night.

“Finally taking charge, are we?” Amélie purred in her ear as she dug her fingers into Lena’s hair. It clicked in Lena’s mind when she said that, she smirked and pulled away from Amélie’s neck.

  
“You’ve been teasing me all night in order to get me to pounce on you first thing, haven’t you, luv?” She asked, nosing at Amélie’s jaw. The dancer gave out a breathy laugh.

  
“Of course, mon amour, I wanted to see if I could tease you into taking charge. Seems to have worked.” She murmured back before dragging her nails down Lena’s upper back.

  
“Alright, luv, but you asked for it.” Lena grabbed Amélie by the front of her jacket and pulled her from the door before forcing her down onto the bed. Lena tugged the scarf around her neck off and her jacket followed, tossing it all to the floor as Amélie watched with a smug smirk. She kicked off her boots before climbing onto the mattress with her.

  
The pilot aggressively tugged off Amélie’s shoes and made quick work of her jeans, undoing the buttons before tucking her fingers into the waist band and pulling it and her panties down in one fast swipe. Amélie let out a little chuckle at Lena’s eagerness before letting out a noise of surprise as Lena grabbed onto her hips and pulled her down the bed. Lena smirked up at her before dipping her head between her thighs, skipping the foreplay and going straight to the main event.

  
Amélie gripped hard on Lena’s hair as her tongue began to swipe through her slick folds before circling in on her clit. Lena moved at an aggressive pace that Amélie had never seen from the younger woman before, feeling her own breathing pick up pace. She was starting to feel pretty smug about her plan. Fingernails dug into the tops of her thighs and her hips as Lena held her hips down to the mattress and against her face.

  
Lena’s right hand left her hip only to press two fingers into her, thrusting harshly. Amélie began to let out noises that Lena hadn’t heard before; she had of course heard her moan before but not like that. She began curling her fingers on the withdrawal and spreading them on re-entry causing Amélie to let out some whimpers. Lena smirked against her and began watching Amélie’s face as she worked, waiting for the older woman to open her eyes and make eye contact. Lena gave her a confident wink as she pressed a third finger inside. She watched on gleefully as Amélie titled her head back with a moan, her eyes rolling back into her head.

  
She felt Amélie orgasm around her fingers and continued sucking intensely on her clit, helping her ride out it out. Once Amélie went limp against the mattress, Lena finally pulled back and withdrew her fingers, watching the Frenchwoman pant and try to catch her breath. The pilot sat up and watched with a smirk on her face, Amélie finally cracking an eye open to look at Lena, catching the smugness.

  
“Was that everything you wanted, luv?” Lena asked, a slight slur to her words. Amélie let out a small laugh now that her breathing had begun to return to normal.

  
“So confident, chérie. Where has this persona been hiding?” Amélie teased, trying to flip the dynamic back. Lena maintained eye contact as she wiped the slick on her face onto the back of her hand before bringing her fingers into her mouth and sucking them clean.

  
“Hey, I’m not the one who spent all night being a tease.” Lena replied with a casual shrug, “You make me real nervous, luv. Your teasing just pushed me to this. Told you I could top.” Amélie laughed a little louder this time.

  
“I see that, I believe I have been proven wrong. To be honest, I’m not too disappointed by that, chérie.” She replied as she removed the pieces of clothing that had been left on in Lena’s eagerness.

“Nah, didn’t think you would be.” Lena murmured as Amélie’s hands grasped her shirt and began undressing her.

“Now, be quiet and let me return the favour.” Amélie purred before flipping the pilot over onto her back, straddling her waist.

                                                                                                  _x_

 

Much to Lena’s surprise, Amélie continued to see her after her birthday. She had always feared that at any moment they would get caught or that Amélie would change her mind and cut off what they had. It made her heart sing to know that Amélie felt enough for her to continue seeing her despite the risks and it wasn’t all just sex though it was a very common feature. The pair had managed to get even closer after that evening on her birthday, while they had been nearly inseparable before that, Lena had been keeping a close guard on her past. Lena finally got up the courage to open up to Amélie and discuss the details of living in foster homes, talking about some brief times where she had been homeless and how she ended up joining the RAF. It was funny that she had finally gotten up the courage to tell Amélie all of that, something she hadn’t voluntarily shared with anyone else before, and still hadn’t been completely honest about the extent of her feelings for Amélie.

  
Lena had tried to keep herself from asking questions about what all of this meant to the older woman, about what was happening in her marriage that would make her want to see someone else in secret, not wanting to ruin the one good thing that had finally happened to her. Having Amélie in secret was better than not having her at all in her mind. Or at least, that’s what she told herself until the launch of the Slipstream grew closer and closer. Lena hadn’t feared what could go wrong and not coming back before she found out her feelings were reciprocated; now she feared what would go unsaid if she continued to keep herself from asking questions.

  
Those thoughts are how she found herself once again pacing in her quarters, this time waiting for Amélie to come to her place instead of the other way around. She had resolved to ask her questions and admit to being in love with the Frenchwoman, certainly she had implied to her about how strong her feelings were but she hadn’t ever gotten the courage to actually own up to them.

  
A short knock at the door made Lena almost jump out her skin, she was on edge and panicking. She feared the worst about what could happen tonight, Amélie rejecting her feelings and refusing to speak to her again as she went back to Gérard. Lena opened the door and found Amélie standing on the other side with a slight smirk on her face before stepping into Lena’s quarters. The pilot quickly locked the door behind her and turned to look up at the taller woman who began to rub her thumb affectionately over the freckles on her cheeks.

  
“You said you needed to speak with me, mon chou. What’s the matter?” Lena averted her eyes, suddenly finding interest in the floor beneath her feet as she tried to gather her courage and scattered brain cells. Amélie could obviously pick up on how uncomfortable Lena was, worry setting in on her face.

“I-I need to be h-honest with you.” She barely managed to stammer out as Amélie gave her a sympathetic look.

  
“Lena, calm down. Whatever you have to say, just say it and we’ll go from there.” She pressed a gentle kiss to Lena’s forehead.

  
“Okay.” Lena took a deep breath in, hoping to slow the hammering in her chest. “I know I already said that I have more than just a thing for you, that this is more than me being attracted to you. Now with the Slipstream launch being so close, I don’t want to go without saying what I need to say. I love you, Amélie. I know it’s probably the last thing you want to hear from me, you’re married after all but I can’t fly out next week without telling you. It’s okay if you don’t feel the same but I need to know what this is. Are you just sleeping with me for fun or does this mean something? What about Gérard? Wha-” Amélie pressed her fingers to Lena’s lips to stop her nervous rambling before she entered the inevitable tail spin of panic.

  
“I know, chérie. You’re not exactly subtle with your feelings. I already told you that I feel the same.” Amélie pulled Lena into a tight embrace, cupping the back of Lena’s head and resting her cheek on top of it. “I love you too, Lena. I don’t know what to do, I am stalling for time while I figure things out with Gérard. He is certainly not a bad husband but… I do not think I feel the same way about him anymore. Sometimes that happens. I just need time.” Lena nodded with a small smile on her face. A small pang of guilt settled inside her, she was happy that someone else’s marriage was failing but she pushed it aside, she had been waiting for this moment for far too long.

  
“’Course, luv. You take all the time you need. I’ll always be here for you.”

  
“I know, ma chérie. I know.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's some basic French used in here, translations are in the brackets. Let me know if there's any mistakes with it. Thanks to my friend, Dallin, who helped with beta reading and the translation.

Amélie sat in the Overwatch library, flipping through one of the newest books she was looking into taking home with her tonight while she waited to hear the results of Lena’s Slipstream launch. She checked her watch; she didn’t know exactly how long it was supposed to take as Lena wasn’t allowed to tell her the specific details. She had used all of her most effective methods of persuasion on the pilot in order to get her to talk a little more about the launch to assuage her own worries. The perky Brit was weak to her methods, usually, but not apparently to the point to break her non-disclosure agreements much to Amélie’s chagrin.

She had expected someone would come through any minute to excitedly declare the success of the Slipstream launch, for Lena to come rushing to her and jump around while telling her all about it. Lena Oxton, the first pilot to travel through time. She could picture it, actually, Lena would race into the library and pull her into some death grip of a hug, her excitement overwhelming her normally adorable bashfulness that came with being near Amélie.

Instead what Amélie saw was Commander Jack Morrison walking up to her and clearing his throat. The sombre look on his face gave away that something had gone wrong. She closed her book and stood up, looking Morrison in the eyes and tried to keep her hands from shaking as she waited for him to deliver the bad news.

“I’m here to take you to speak to Winston. It’s about Tr- Lena.” What could possibly have gone wrong that Winston was going to deliver the news?

“D’accord.” She murmured, trying to keep her voice even.

Amélie spent the walk to Winston’s lab running scenarios through her mind. Was Lena in the medical bay? Was she injured? Was she dead? Would she get to see Lena again? Morrison refused to answer any questions, insisting it would be best for her to speak to Winston first before anyone else. Morrison held open the door to Winston’s lab for her and let it close once she was inside. Most of the lights inside his lab had either been turned off or dimmed causing Amélie to ring her fingers and worry her lip between her teeth. She adjusted the scarf around her neck while waiting for Winston to speak, to acknowledge her presence, making sure the hickey Lena had accidentally left on her skin the night before was covered. Things had gotten much rougher than usual the night before between the two of them with the launch so close.

“Take a seat, Amélie.” The gorilla gestured to one of the stools by his desk which she swiftly took.

“Where’s Lena? Is she okay?” Amélie’s heart sunk at the way that he winced at the questions, at the mention of Lena’s name. He stood a few metres away from where she sat, taking a few moments to gather his thoughts.

“We launched the Slipstream a few hours ago; all was fine until Lena went to use the teleportation functions of the craft. We’ve been looking for multiple hours but we believe she’s gone. We’re going to keep looking but I don’t know if we’re going to find her. It’s very unlikely at best. I’m sorry, Amélie, but she’s most likely dead.” All the air seemed to leave Amélie’s lungs, tears beginning to flow instantly. She had figured that this would be the news she was going to receive by the look on Morrison’s face earlier but it was something else to actually hear it. She had hoped to be told that Lena was severely injured, as horrible as that sounds, she could at least work with that … but gone? Winston crossed the room when she began letting out loud, choked sobs and pulled her into a tight embrace.

He let her cry for as long as she needed, refusing other agent’s requests for entry to the lab to speak to him, he let Athena know that they could wait unless they were coming to tell him they had found Lena. After she had gotten out most of her tears, unable to cry anymore it dawned on her that there would be only one reason that Winston would be showing such intense kindness to her,  making sure that she was given the news by someone that knew them both and not hearing it through just anyone.

“You know, don’t you?” She managed out in a whisper, just loud enough for Winston to hear. It didn’t come with a tone of accusation or anger, just acceptance.

“Lena didn’t tell me anything other than she had feelings for you. I figured it out on my own when she began talking about you less and less, it was clear that she was seeing someone with how much she was leaving the base and I put those things together. I assume it was her attempt at protecting you but Lena was many things, subtle wasn’t one of them.” Amélie winced slightly at that last comment, he probably hadn’t meant it the way it sounded but it brought forth some guilt. Winston paused for a few moments, letting the new information sink in, “I figured it would be best for me to give you the news and that you needed some space, Gérard is being kept busy for now. He hasn’t been informed about what happened.”

Amélie began to stammer through an explanation for her affair with Lena, wanting to explain that Lena meant something to her but Winston shushed her. “Lena loved you and I figure you feel the same, you don’t have to explain anything to me. She was the closest friend I had here so I want to help. What do you need?” Amélie took the time to sit and collect her thoughts, figuring out what she actually needed next, after a few minutes of silence she knew what to ask for.

“I don’t want to see Gérard, not yet… Can you let me into Lena’s quarters? I want to stay there for now.” Winston seemed to consider that for a moment, obviously fearing that her affair with Lena would be exposed.

“I can, but are you sure? I can let you into her quarters but I don’t think I can keep it a secret from the others and they’ll begin to sus-” Amélie cut him off, feeling determined.

“I don’t care if others work it out, what does it matter anymore?” Amélie had expected to feel many things today, excitement and pride maybe, but certainly not apathy to her own marriage or this overwhelming sadness. She gathered up her things and took the swipe card that Winston held out to her, giving into her request. “Where is Gérard? I want to be able to avoid him.”

“He should be up in one of the meeting rooms right now.” Amélie gave him a short nod before heading out of his lab, walking towards the agent quarters and taking care to avoid the meeting rooms or anywhere that Gérard might be.

It took her a few minutes to have the courage to unlock Lena’s door and enter the quarters, not caring for the stares and hushed whispers of people walking around that could see her hovering outside of Lena’s room. Once inside she stood by the door for several minutes, examining the way that Lena had left her quarters that morning before the launch, part of her didn’t want to disturb it, not wanting to ruin the last remnants of Lena that still existed. She warmed slightly at the sight of Lena’s chronically messy room.

Eventually she got the courage to place her handbag on the floor beside the bed, reaching into it and turning her phone off to avoid any attempts from Gérard to contact her, she grabbed Lena’s RAF jacket from where it hung on a hook by her wardrobe. Amélie laid down on the bed, holding the jacket to her chest and stared off into space.  She wished that she could fit the jacket, that she could wear it but Lena had been so much smaller than her which was something she appreciated until now.

                                                                      _x_

 

After three days of not emerging from Lena’s quarters there was a knock at the door. No one had attempted to come find her until now, Amélie suspected that no one knew how to deal with the level of grief she was showing and left her be. It would be more than what others expected, everyone knew that she had been friends with Lena but as far as she could tell, Winston was the only one who knew the extent of what went on between them.

“Amélie, ma chérie, s'il te plaît reviens à la maison.” (Amélie, honey, please come home.) Gérard’s voice was muffled by the door between them. She figured he had been trying to call her since Lena disappeared but Amélie had switched her phone off purposefully to avoid him. Eventually Winston would have given into his questions and told him where she was hiding. She couldn’t expect any less from him, really, and she had to be grateful that Winston had managed to hold out for this long to let her grieve by herself. She hadn’t left Lena’s quarters the entire time since she had received the news, only getting up from the bed to go to the bathroom and drink water before lying back down and cradling the RAF jacket that Lena had adored.

“Non, je reste ici. Vas t'en, Gérard.” (No, I’m staying here. Go away, Gérard.)

Amélie ignored Gérard’s begging through the door for her to come home, he stood outside the door for two hours before giving up because she wouldn’t respond to him. She couldn’t deal with him, not now, she knew he would begin to ask questions about her relationship with Lena and she couldn’t cope with that. She knew that she should have felt more guilt over how she was acting but she couldn’t bring herself to care about that right now, nor could she care about the state of her marriage.

Over the next two days, a few different people attempted to coax her out of Lena’s quarters. First, Gérard came back and begged her again for her to open the door and let him in or for her to come back home. Next, Winston came and sat outside the door and talked to her about Lena, sharing some memories of their friendship with her before it overwhelmed her and she asked him to leave. At first the stories were nice, they gave her a look into a version of Lena she hadn’t had the chance to see yet until she realised that it would be a side of Lena that she would never get the chance to get to know. When he refused to leave she snapped at him, demanding to know why he wasn’t working on finding her. Lastly, Angela Ziegler attempted to coax her out before finally managing to convince Amélie that if she wasn’t going to leave Lena’s quarters, she could at least let Angela in and let her give her food.

Amélie forced herself up off the bed and walked to the door, unlocking it and the doctor looked up at her in surprise. No one had managed to succeed in getting Amélie to open the door so far, she obviously hadn’t expected for her attempt to work but quickly scrambled to her feed with the plates of food in her hand and entered the quarters.

“Can I sit on that chair, Amélie?” Angela asked, obviously trying to be gentle with her, not wanting to spook or upset the Frenchwoman.

“Non,” She replied, taking a few moments before continuing, “You can sit here on the bed though.” She patted the spot on the bed beside her. Angela sat down and passed her the plate of food meant for her and let Amélie sit and eat silently before saying anything further.

“Talk to me, Amélie. Tell me what’s going on.” Angela murmured gently, rubbing her palm up and down the outside of Amélie’s arm in order to comfort her, to coax her into answering.

“You are wondering, non? You want to know why a married woman is hiding herself away in another woman’s room when they’re meant to just be friends. You’re thinking that there must be something I didn’t tell you or Gérard. You’re not here _just_ to try getting me to leave, you want to get answers.” Amélie said it with more venom than she had originally planned. Angela removed her hand from the outside of her arm and chewed her lip between her teeth.

 “I wasn’t going to pry but since you brought it up, yes. Gérard is worried for you, waiting for you to come back home to him and here you are, hiding in a young girl’s room. Amélie, what’s going on?”

“I loved her. I was sleeping with her too. I can’t let her go or go back to Gérard. I’m going to have to leave him, though I was considering that before Lena disappeared but now I know I definitely can’t stay. I don’t love him… not anymore.” Angela stared at her for a few moments, slightly slack jawed, obviously not expecting Amélie to be so brazenly honest with her.

“I mean… I had suspected something more between you two recently. I knew Lena had a crush on you but I wouldn’t have thought you would have gone through with it.” Angela clenched her fists slightly, running her eyes up and down Amélie.

“You can judge me if you wish, but don’t judge Lena for what happened between us. I understand if you want to side with Gérard and don’t wish to speak to me anymore, all I need right now is to be left alone. Thank you for the food.” Amélie said before standing up and locking herself in the bathroom connected to Lena’s quarters, waiting until she heard Angela leave.

                                                                _x_

It was another three days before Amélie finally got the courage to leave Lena’s quarters, hanging the jacket back up on the hook by the wardrobe and gathering her handbag. She did her best to leave the room how she found it, not wanting to ruin it just in case she got to stay here in the future. She tried her hardest to ignore the stares of the agents on base as she made her exit, trying to ignore anyone who tried to talk to her. She figured people were playing guessing games to find out why she was acting the way she was.

She had hoped that she had planned her departure right, that Gérard would not be home and she could continue to avoid him but Angela had been honest when she said that he was waiting for her to come back. When she unlocked the door to her home, Gérard gave her a fright, opening the door for her before she could herself.

“Amélie, t’es t'es rentrée!” (You’re back!) He declared and pulled her into an uncomfortably tight embrace, bringing forth the feelings of guilt and shame she was trying to avoid. “Dis-moi, chérie, qu’est-ce qui s’est passé?” (Tell me, honey, what happened?)

“Tu sais deja, Gérard, Lena est morte.” (You already know, Gérard, Lena is dead.) She snapped, forcing herself out of his embrace and heading down the main hallway and into their bedroom. She crouched down in front of their wardrobe and pulled out a large bag, beginning to fill it with her clothes and toiletries.

“Alors tu vas où? Tu viens de rentrer!” (So where are you going? You just got back!) Gérard yelled, trying to physically stop her from packing her bags.

“Je vais à un hôtel, je ne peux plus rester ici. Je n'y arrive plus.” (I’m going to a hotel, I can’t stay here. I can’t do this anymore.) She pulled her wrist back from Gérard’s grasp and continued her packing.

“Ça veut dire quoi ça ? Tu n'y arrives plus?” (What do you mean? You can’t do this anymore?)

“J'ai vous dupé, Gérard, je ne t’aime plus. Je ne peux pas être ici quand Lena a disparu. Je ne peux pas faire face à ça en étant ici avec toi!” (I cheated on you, Gérard, I don’t love you anymore. I can't do this now that Lena has disappeared. I can’t be with you.) She punctuated what she said with zipping her bag shut and picked it up off the floor, brushing past him. Amélie stood up from where she was crouched on the floor, attempting to brush past where Gérard stood in the doorway when he tried to stop her again, grabbing her shoulder. “Laisse-moi, connard!” (Let go, asshole!) Gérard let go of her with a stunned look on his face, the guilt began throbbing in her brain. She knew that he didn’t deserve what she was doing to him. “Désolée, tu ne mérites pas ça. J’ai besoin d’espace pour réfléchir avant qu'on se parle à nouveau.” (Sorry, you don’t deserve this. I just need some space.)  

Amélie brushed past him, leaving him standing in the doorway to their bedroom still dumbfounded. She knew he had no clue about her affair before Lena disappeared, she had been careful for a reason while she figured out what she was going to do next but now that Lena was gone, she couldn’t pretend for him anymore. He hadn’t done anything wrong; when he had been here he had been a good husband and loved her but it wasn’t fair to either of them to continue to pretend. She needed time to deal with losing Lena before she could even begin to think about him.

                                                              _x_

 

A few days into living in a hotel suite, Winston gave her a call to update her on the investigation in Lena’s disappearance and the failure of the Slipstream as he had promised to do. The pair had begun to get closer in the past several days, bonding over memories of Lena. Amélie had taken leave from her position at the ballet and had spent most of her time in her hotel room since leaving home and Lena’s quarters at base. She was half asleep in bed when Winston called causing her to paw wildly at the bedside table for her phone before bringing it to her ear and giving him a muffled greeting.

“Hello, Amélie, I hope I’m not waking you, you sound like you might have been asleep.” Amélie rubbed the sleep from her eyes and sat up.

“No, not really. Do you have any updates on the investigation?”

“Yes, actually, that’s why I’m calling. We’re starting to get somewhere on why the teleportation matrix failed, I think. I’ll let you know when I have more.” Winston paused for a moment and she waited for him to speak again, it seemed like he had more to say, “There’s something else… I’m worried that Commander Morrison is going to pull the plug on our efforts to locate Lena. Things are precarious with our budget at the moment and he has made comments about spending so much of our budget on the off chance that she is still alive. I’m doing the best that I can to prevent them from cutting off funding for my search but I don’t want you to get your hopes up.” She climbed out of bed, anger bubbling up inside her at the idea of them cutting off the search for Lena. They couldn’t do that, not when there was _still_ a chance, no matter how small.  

“That bastard! I’ll come down there and talk to hi-” Winston cut off her angry rambling before she got away from herself. She could feel her hands shaking with anger at the idea of Lena possibly still being out there, wherever that is, alone and forgotten.

“No, no. If you come down here and argue with Morrison and the others, there’s a chance it might get cut off faster that way. You just need to stay calm and let me handle the others while I continue to look into this. I just wanted to be honest with you about what was happening in case anything changes.” Amélie took a deep breath in and sat back down on the edge of the bed, calming herself and taking a few moments before speaking.

“Thank you, Winston. I really am grateful that you’re still talking to me about this. Everything… Most things have become a lot more complicated now that Lena’s gone.” She knew that the news of her affair with Lena had been spreading throughout Headquarters in the few days since she left. Friends and acquaintances had been drying up quickly but Winston continued to speak with her in spite of it.

“Lena cared about you a lot, and anyone Lena cared for is fine by me.” He paused for a moment, “Speaking of which, I think I have something you might want to see. I’ll send it to you. It’s a video I found the other day while looking through all the information I have on the Slipstream project.” Amélie arched her brow slightly, not that he could see it.

“Thank you, I’ll have a look.” She was definitely curious as to what Winston might have for her to watch. Once the call ended, she picked up her holopad and searched through for the message Winston would have sent and downloaded the video attached to it.

Amélie waited as it loaded, it appeared to be some security footage held by Athena. She could see it was Winston’s lab and Lena was in the corner of the frame, sitting on one of the desks next to Winston’s computer and looked to be eating something. The time stamp placed the footage a few months prior to Lena’s birthday. She could hear Winston speaking when it finally loaded and began to play.

 _Do you still have your crush on Amélie?_ Lena choked on the food she was eating, the flush appearing on her face and neck both caused by choking and embarrassment.

_Winston! Not when Athena is watching us._

_What do you think she’s going to do Lena? Tell people your poorly kept secret?_

_What do you mean poorly kept?!_ Lena’s voice raised an octave and began to take on a slight squeak that brought a smile to Amélie’s face.

_Have you seen yourself when you’re near her? You look like you’re about to pass out whenever she talks to you._

_Is it really that obvious? I haven’t told anyone, didn’t even tell you about it, mate._ Lena rested her face in her hands before running them through her hair.

_It really is that obvious. Angela knows too, she asked me if you had said anything to me. You know how she is, endlessly curious._

_Do you think Amélie knows?_ Lena squeaked again. Amélie laughed to herself as she watched the pilot panic, she certainly did miss the way that Lena acted when around her.

 _I don’t know. I would say that last time I checked, Amélie has eyes and she probably does know._ Lena let out a groan of exasperation.

 _How embarrassing. She turns me into an idiot whenever she’s nearby. First off, she’s bloody gorgeous, mate. Then it turns out that she’s real nice and far smarter than me. Better than what I deserve, totally out of my league and she’s married._ Winston let out an indulgent chuckle.

_Are you going to do anything about it?_

_Nah, mate. She’s married, couldn’t do that to her. It’d probably make her uncomfortable and then she wouldn’t want to be my friend anymore. Not worth the risk, luv._ Amélie watched a few more minutes of the footage before pausing it and closing the file. The pair go on to joke around and then Lena talks Winston into playing some card game that she had always tried to get Amélie to play. She could see why Winston had sent this to her. It was nice to see this side of Lena, how she acted around other people. As much as she liked how easily flustered Lena was whenever she was around, it was nice to see her a little more casual and comfortable.

                                                                        _x_

The date of Lena’s memorial service seemed to arrive a little faster than what was comfortable. Time had passed quicker than Amélie would have liked between the time she spent acquainting herself with the many bottles of wine the hotel possessed and the time she spent sleeping off her hangovers. Angela had made a few awkward attempts at contacting her to check up on her, to find out whether she was coping or not but Amélie had mostly brushed her off, she didn’t want to talk about it just yet.  

The service had been as simple as Amélie had requested. Since Lena didn’t have any living family to speak of Overwatch had contacted her to ask what Lena would have wanted since she hadn’t created any formal plans if she were to die while serving. It wasn’t something that she had discussed with Lena, the idea that she wouldn’t come back from the Slipstream launch hadn’t seemed to cross either of their minds as a real possibility. She told them that Lena would have wanted something simple with some RAF feature to it but she didn’t know the specifics, they told her they could work with that. It was overwhelming to go from having an affair with Lena in secret to deciding what to do with her memorial service and her belongings once they cleared out her quarters.

Amélie chose not to speak during the service despite Winston asking if she would want to. She knew that choosing to speak would take the focus away from Lena, that people wouldn’t be able to look past their affair, even though she very much wanted to talk and share some of the best stories she had about Lena. Winston gave a heart-warming speech and brought tears to Amélie’s eyes as much as she had been trying not to cry throughout the service.

Once the service was finished, Amélie did her best to leave the church without being stopped, expertly dodging Gérard who had been hanging around the back throughout the service and trying to keep himself hidden from her. She had managed to get to the parking lot and her car when Angela stopped her, closing the car door as she attempted to open it. Amélie did her best to give the doctor an even stare.

“You’ve been avoiding my calls. I’m worried about you.” She let out a sigh and brushed her hair behind her ear.

“I need space at the moment.” Amélie replied, avoiding Angela’s piercing blue eyes. There were a few moments of silence between them before the doctor changed the subject.

“You didn’t speak during the service?” The way Angela said it made it sound more like a statement than a question.

“How exactly do you think my speaking during that service would have gone? It would have only taken away the focus from Lena.” Amélie made a second attempt at opening her car door only pausing before climbing inside, “I’ll call you when I’m feeling more up to it, I just need some time to myself right now.” Angela’s eyes examined her face for a few moments before nodding and backing off. Amélie got in her car and headed back to the hotel without any further interruptions.

                                                                      _x_

 

In the days following Lena’s memorial service, Amélie began meeting with a divorce lawyer to discuss her options with him. He had suggested many dirty methods to hide her money and assets to prevent Gérard from getting what he was legally entitled to. It had been tempting at first to do that but after taking time to consider it, she informed her lawyer that she wouldn’t be doing that Gérard after cheating on him and then leaving him out of the blue. The very least she could do was play fair.

After one particularly long meeting with him to decide what assets she would like to end up with, she found herself at the bar just down the road from her hotel to split up having drinks alone in her hotel suite. Between the wine she had been drinking and the emotional state she was in, Amélie hadn’t noticed those who had been following her for weeks. It wasn’t until she was followed out of the bar late that night and tazed into unconsciousness that she figured it out.

 


	3. Chapter 3

Being lost in time felt like everything was happening at once. Lena could see events from history and the future, both events involving herself and those involving others she knew or didn’t know. She didn’t know how long it had been since she disappeared, was it seconds, minutes, months or years? All time seemed to be occurring at once.

She even saw events that involved people she recognised, Amélie and Gérard’s wedding was one of the first things she experienced. It was strange to watch events happening to others without the ability to really participate. Even though it wasn’t exactly fun to watch Amélie marry him, it was nice to see her happy and she certainly had been on that day even if she hadn’t been by the time she had met Lena. She even saw herself marrying Amélie at one point though the Frenchwoman’s skin was some sort of shade of blue, not the pale ivory that Lena was used to.

Lena eventually found herself on the rooftops of what looked to be King’s Row in London watching another version of herself in bright yellow-orange leggings with some clunky contraption around her chest that she didn’t recognise fight a blue skinned woman. She watched as whatever version of herself this was eventually lost and the blue skinned woman assassinated an omnic she didn’t recognise.

Another time she found herself at an Overwatch base she didn’t recognise, it certainly wasn’t Headquarters in Switzlerand. She did recognise the blonde doctor, Angela Ziegler, though she was obviously older than the Angela she knew. Angela was with a woman Lena didn’t know immediately until she saw the resemblance between her and Captain Amari and remembered that the Captain had a daughter. The rest of what she saw was largely made up of events and people she didn’t recognise split up between times of nothingness.

Eventually Lena was pulled out of her the Slipstream. She was greeted with a cold tile floor and bright lights shining in her eyes. Going from being able to perceive almost nothing and being able to interact with absolutely nothing to being able to perceive everything at once was indescribable. It took her several minutes to be able to adjust to the lights, to be able to understand the sound around her beyond just loud ringing in her ears and be able to see and hear the woman hovering over her. It was Dr Angela Ziegler.

“Lena-” The Doctor started. Lena could see her mouth still moving but couldn’t hear anything she was saying. She could feel the blonde’s gloved fingers pressing to her neck before she tried shining a light in her eyes, causing Lena to flinch.

“-hear me?” Angela asked her again, she only caught the end of what she had said. Lena squinted up at her.

“Lena, can you hear me? Do you know what I’m saying?” She heard all of what the doctor said this time, the sensations were beginning to calm.

“Yeah, luv. I can hear you.” She croaked out, her throat was dry and it felt like trying to talk with cotton balls in her mouth.

“Good,” Angela started with a warm smile on her face, “We’re going to have to sedate you but when you wake up you should be anchored in time for good. I also need to tend to your injuries. Welcome back Lena.”

Lena woke up in a hospital bed a while later. She didn’t know how long she had been unconscious, how long it had been since she had spoken with Angela. She looked down and saw a blue glow under her hospital gown, the pain in her body finally catching up with her and causing her to let out a low groan. It was a dull ache all over, only matched by a splitting headache.

Lena began to try take in her surroundings. She recognised where she was quickly, the medical bay of the Overwatch Switzerland Headquarters. Parts of her body were covered in bandages, something to ask Angela about when she got the chance. Lena soon found herself lost looking out the window beside her bed, watching people on the street pass by and live their lives. Everything began to feel far away and unreal until she was grounded by Angela’s hand on her shoulder.  She hadn’t even realised that Angela had come in.

“Lena?” She peeled her eyes away from the window and stared up at the doctor standing by her bedside. “Good to see you’re awake. How are you feeling?” Lena examined the woman before her for a few moments before answering. Angela looked largely the same as when she launched the Slipstream, though slightly older and a lot more exhausted. The dark rings under her eyes told Lena that the good doctor had been spending most of her nights in her office again without taking breaks from her research.

“Like death, luv.” Lena let out a small sigh, “But it’s better than what it was before, innit?”

“Does your chest hurt?” Angela asked her, gesturing to the blue glow under her hospital gown with the pen in her hand.

“Yeah, a bit. Feels like something’s pressing down on my chest.” Angela nodded and began to scribble on her clipboard. Lena sat in silence while the doctor took her vitals and ran a few quick tests, it was overwhelming to be back and she found herself having trouble finding the words to speak.

“How long was I gone?” Lena finally managed to ask, barely above a whisper. Angela examined her with her eyes for a moment, obviously worried about how Lena would react to the answer, before responding to her question. 

“Just over seven months. We thought you had died and even had a funeral for you before you began showing up around the place. You would appear in front of different members of Overwatch, on and off base, in your Slipstream flight suit.” Angela paused and pushed her some of her hair behind her ear, “Do you remember any of it?” Lena pursed her lips at the question.

“I don’t remember appearing in front of anyone. Felt like everything was happening at once I guess. Could see some things from the past and the future happening but I’m not sure how much I remember or even how much of it was real, luv.” Lena looked down at her hands, nervously tugging at her finger tips before continuing, “What’s the thing in my chest?”

“It’s your chronal anchor; we implanted it in your chest to keep you stable in time. Winston managed to build a chamber to bring you back into time so I could operate on you and implant the anchor. I also tended to your injuries from the Slipstream accident itself since you were lost in time as you were when it happened. You had some minor burns, scrapes and bruises and a few fractured ribs.” Lena nodded, not making eye contact with her. “If it’s alright with you, I think there are a few people who would like to see you. I had them agree to stay away until I checked in on you first and got your permission. I didn’t want you to be overwhelmed.”

“Yeah, it’s alright with me, luv.” Lena forced herself to smile slightly at the doctor, “Before you let them in, how long do I have to stay here?” Lena was already dreading the wait time before she could leave, she never liked how it felt to just sit around.

“A few days for observation and then we should be able to see about getting you a quarters here on base again.” Angela gave her a smile in return before heading back out and down the hall, her heels clicking on the tiled floor. Lena let herself think about those who would be waiting to see her. Winston for sure, he wouldn’t be able to resist visiting her at the first opportunity after how close they got during her training for the Slipstream. She hoped Amélie would be waiting to see her. She wondered if the Frenchwoman had changed much in the seven months she had been gone, whether she would be happy to see her alive again, whether she was still married to Gérard. Lena tried not to get her hopes up about picking up their relationship where it had been left off; they hadn’t had the chance to discuss the future seriously before she disappeared.

Lena was pulled out of her thoughts when Winston stepped through the door followed by Commander Morrison and Captain Amari. She continued to watch the door expectantly, waiting for Amélie to walk through with them. When she realised she wouldn’t be joining them she tried to push her worry and disappointment down, maybe they had to speak to her first or Amélie requested to be able to see her alone and needed to wait. She couldn’t let herself think that Amélie had moved on or didn’t want to see her anymore.

“How are you feeling, Lena?” Winston asked her, an edge of nervousness in his voice.

“More alive than before this, mate.” Lena responded, forcing a slight smile as she pointed to the anchor in her chest. She didn’t want to worry anyone by being anything less than completely okay straight out the gate.

“That’s good to hear.” Winston began to talk about the plans for the accelerator that would allow her to control her own time and covered a lot of the information Angela had already given her. Lena only half listened to her friend while she examined the Commander and the Captain standing beside him, they seemed more distant than before her accident. They were avoiding direct eye contact, not saying much to her and keeping their bodies turned away from her. It wasn’t that Lena had been terribly close to either of them before her accident but they hadn’t ever been this cold before.

Eventually Lena was left in the medical bay by herself again, part of her still waiting and hoping for Amélie to show up. No one had said anything to her either way about whether she would be coming to visit any time soon. She found herself lost looking out the window again until Angela returned a few hours later for another visit, a stack of books in hand.

“I figured you might want something to do while you stay here, I managed to find some of your old books that we had in storage and thought you might want them. I might be able to find something else to read tomorrow if you have any requests.” Angela said as she placed the books on the table beside her bed. Lena decided just to cut the crap and ask Angela what she had on her mind.

“Is Amélie going to visit?” Lena asked without directly looking at the doctor, she could see Angela stiffen slightly out of the corner of her eye. Angela nervously rubbed the back of her neck causing anxiety to bubble within her.

“I’m not sure I should be the one to talk to you about that.” Lena’s brow twisted in confusion.

“What do you mean by that?” She found herself snapping at the doctor. _Oh god, she chose to leave me behind and doesn’t want to see me anymore. She’s chosen to stay with Gérard._

“I mean that it’s not my place to talk to you about Amélie. I’ll get Winston to discuss that with you in the morning.” Angela’s demeanour had changed dramatically at the mention of Amélie, losing the warm bedside manner she normally possessed. Lena watched the doctor with confusion as she left. What were they hiding from her?

                                                                        _x_

Winston visited Lena first thing the following morning. She was exhausted, having been unable to bring herself to sleep the night before but choosing to keep that to herself. She knew if she told them she was too afraid to sleep the night before that it would be much longer before she would be let out of this place and would be forced to attend therapy sessions. Winston found Lena reading one of the books Angela had brought out of storage for her.

“I suppose it’s time we talked, Lena.” Winston spoke with an ominous tone, reigniting the anxiety she had felt yesterday when Amélie had failed to show and when Angela had refused to tell her where she was. Was she about to be told that Amélie had decided to cut things off and leave Lena behind her? Did everyone here know about her affair with Amélie? Her stomach turned as she waited for Winston to continue.

“Almost two months after you disappeared, Amélie was taken. She was kidnapped by Talon agents, we believe they took advantage of her emotional state and problems with Gérard after you disappeared. She reappeared a few weeks later and it seemed like Talon hadn’t done anything to her, Angela ran all possible tests and found nothing so we let her go home with Gérard. It seemed strange to me, if I’m to be honest, before she was taken she was filing for divorce and visited your grave often. Then she returns from Talon and insists on going home with Gérard. He wouldn’t listen to my concerns.” Winston paused, sighing loudly as he run his palm through his fur.

 “Two weeks later, Gérard was found dead in their bed and Amélie was missing again. We assume that Amélie was also killed but we haven’t had any luck in locating her body.” Lena felt like she could barely breathe, her fingers twisting in the bed sheets. Amélie was taken because she was an easy target after she disappeared. Her chest felt constricted and her head light, Winston seemed forever away from her. The ringing in her ears felt like when she was pulled out of the Slipstream.

The next thing she knew Angela was holding her shoulders into the bed, talking her through a breathing exercise to calm her down. Angela explained to her that she had had a panic attack and that she had been flailing around before finally releasing her grip on her shoulders once Lena had calmed. Winston had left the room in order to give her space while she calmed herself down and accepted the news she had been given but Angela stayed, sitting in the chair beside her bed to make sure she didn’t have another panic attack.

“Everyone knows, huh?” Lena finally asked. Angela looked down, away from her, making her answer unnecessary.

“Amélie did not take your disappearance well. Everyone knew that you were close, many suspected that you had a crush on her but few guessed that Amélie returned those feelings until you were gone. She didn’t keep your affair a secret.” Angela spoke with a coldness that was unlike her. She was judging her and Amélie’s affair. Everyone being aware of what happened between them explained the distance Commander Morrison and Captain Amari was putting between themselves and her. Most of the members of Overwatch at the Swiss headquarters were friends with Gérard or at least knew him. Lena just nodded to acknowledge what the doctor had said, lying in her bed in silence until Angela left her to be alone. No point talking to her about this, she didn’t need the judgement the doctor was giving her.

                                                                      _x_

A few days and a few cold interactions with Angela passed before she was allowed to leave the medical bay and was given her own quarters alongside other Overwatch agents. Winston had retrieved a few of the boxes that he had kept aside and not been able to let go of when they had thought she had died. It was a few boxes of books, a few posters and her RAF jacket. The rest of her belongings from before her accident would have to be replaced. Winston said they would give her money to go out and replace her clothing the next day.

Lena kept herself holed up in her quarters, only leaving her room once for some food in the lunch hall. Between the awkward attempts at conversation with some of the agents she used to interact with and the cold stares from those who had been close to Gérard, she decided it would be better to keep to herself and her quarters for now despite how much she craved to be with others after months of being lost in time.

                                                                            _x_

Weeks pass since Lena was brought back to reality by Winston. Other than going to training sessions set up by Winston and Morrison to test out the capabilities of the chronal accelerator, Lena continued to hide herself away in her quarters and kept to herself. She spent a lot of her time catching herself up on what happened while she was away, watching movies that had been realised and reading new books, scrolling through news sites on her holopad. Most importantly, she had managed to convince Winston to give her access to all the files surrounding Amélie and her disappearance despite the worried look he gave her when he agreed.

She hadn’t been sleeping much and when she had it was plagued with nightmares, nightmares about waking up and being gone again or her chronal anchor failing. She used her time awake to study the files on Amélie over and over, hoping to find something others had missed. Angela forced her into weekly appointments and check-ups where she tried to get more information about how she was coping from her. Lena decided to keep her problems to herself, not wanting to concern Angela or Winston with her troubles. She didn’t want to be forced into therapy, to have her files on Amélie be taken away out of fear that she was obsessed and didn’t want to force Angela into spending more time with her after she had made her feelings clear about her affair with Amélie. Angela had never actually said anything to Lena about how she felt about it, but she knew the doctor had been close with both Amélie and Gérard and her behaviour around Lena had been obvious enough. Normally the doctor was relatively good at concealing her emotions to keep her patients comfortable but this seemed to be a more personal exception, her judgement leaking its way into every interaction between them.

It wasn’t until Lena finally collapsed in a training session in front of Winston due to exhaustion that Lena owned up to the problems she was having. Lena had the joy of waking up in the medical bay with Angela hovering over her with a displeased look on her face.

“Hiya, luv. What’s up?” Angela arched her brow at Lena, obviously not believing the fake smile Lena gave her.

“You collapsed due to exhaustion. You look like you haven’t slept properly in weeks and you won’t speak to anyone and before you argue, occasionally speaking to Athena does not count. I checked with Winston, you’re not speaking to either of us. What’s going on Lena?” Lena let out a sigh before giving in, she had known she wouldn’t be able to keep this up forever but she had hoped for more time. Angela kept giving her _that_ look and Lena knew she wouldn’t leave until she talked.

“I’m too afraid to sleep, I’m afraid of disappearing and when I do sleep I get nightmares of me disappearing again or my chronal accelerator not working or sometimes I have nightmares about people pointing out how Amélie disappearing being my fault.” Angela’s face softened as Lena continued, “Been using my time to look into her files and see if I could find something everyone else missed. Haven’t been doing much else cause no one else really wants to talk to me, you know?” Lena looked away from Angela, wanting to avoid her gaze.

“You know you can always talk to me Lena, you can talk to Winston.” Lena scoffed a little to herself and caused Angela to raise her brow again.

“You’re not too great at hiding how much you disapprove of me sleeping with Amélie, you know that? Anytime her name comes up you get cold and distant, get this look on your face like you’re judging me. I know you were close to her but you know nothing about my relationship with her.” Angela stood for a moment in silence before taking a seat on the edge of the bed, her hand covering Lena’s.

“I guess I’m not as good at hiding my opinions as I thought.” Angela paused for a moment, pursing her lips as if she was thinking about what to say next, “I was indeed quite close with both Gérard and Amélie. I knew you had a crush on her, that you could possibly be in love with her but I had no suspicions that she might return those feelings until a few weeks before you disappeared. She confirmed her feelings for you after you were gone, she didn’t seem to want to continue keeping secrets. Amélie did not cope well with your disappearing and Gérard suffered a lot.” The _“and it’s all because of you, all your fault”_ went unsaid. Lena balled her fists and chewed on her lower lip, it was one thing to be judged in secret but it was another to be judged so openly, so harshly.

“You talk like you think that’s what I wanted. I loved her, you know? I always had a crush on her and then I fell in love with her, I kept it to myself for a long time. I figured that maybe I could just love her quietly and be her friend, that she wouldn’t notice, that I wouldn’t screw anything up that way. Obviously she did notice. It wasn’t just me sleeping with her. It was more than that.” Lena felt Angela’s thumb rubbing over the back of her knuckles. “Last thing I wanted was to fall in love with a woman I knew I couldn’t have or to ruin someone else’s marriage. Now she’s gone and everyone feels like they have the right to judge me. I know what everyone’s thinking ‘cause I’m thinking it too. Amélie and Gérard would both still be alive if I had kept my filthy hands to myself.”

“I’m sorry you felt you couldn’t come talk to me or to Winston or anyone here at Overwatch. I can’t do anything to stop how others treat you but I can improve. I didn’t realise that it was more than that to you. I shouldn’t have assumed that about your character and I’m sorry, Lena.” Lena chewed her lip for a moment, looking Angela in the eye.

“I forgive you, Ange. You didn’t know. I’m so lonely.” Lena burst into sobs before Angela pulled her in, holding her tightly and running her fingers through Lena’s unruly hair.

Angela cleared the rest of her schedule for the day in order to sit with Lena and hold her, giving her the physical contact she had been craving since she was rescued. She let Lena talk about anything she wanted and she let Lena choose to sit in silence if she wished.

“She was just real kind, you know?” Lena sniffed, rubbing her tears away with the back of her hand, “She knew I had no family and barely any friends to speak of when I got here. Always made sure that I had everything I needed and wanting to pay for it all. She would make sure I didn’t spend holidays alone, even if it meant splitting up her time with Gérard. It was the first time I spent Christmas with someone else in years.”

“You have no family?” She gently asked, not wanting to pressure Lena into answering the question as she carded her fingers through her hair.

“No. I lived in foster care most of my life, was homeless for a little bit here and there. Didn’t have any parents to speak of, assume they didn’t want me. Only person I told around here about that was Amélie and it took forever for me to admit it. Seemed she knew before I even told her, maybe not the exact details but knew something. She always took care of me, even if she didn’t love me back, I would have stuck around.”

The pair sat in med bay for the rest of the afternoon, cradling Lena as she talked about memories of Amélie.  

                                                                _x_

 

After finally opening up to Angela and talking through why she had been so cold to Lena, she agreed to coming to see Angela for therapy multiple times a week. They began to talk through all the nightmares and lack of sleep, her obsession with finding Amélie and her need to have a watch on her at all times or a clock on the wall, sometimes more than one. They began to work through it, Angela prescribing medication to cope with her anxiety and lack of sleep.

Angela eventually managed to coax Lena into only having one clock in her quarters; it took a lot of time, months of therapy sessions. They were taking it one step at a time to help her cope, first working on her fear of being lost in time again before moving onto her obsession with finding Amélie. It took much longer for Lena to agree to give up the files she had been given than it took to convince her to give up the extra clocks. It took several months but eventually Lena gave in, realising that she wasn’t making any progress on finding Amélie and she was wasting her time. She managed to convince Angela to let her keep the picture of Amélie that was in the file and let her pin it up on the cork board by the door to her quarters.

One day, Winston asked Lena to come to his office as he had something to show her once she was done with her mission briefing. She didn’t know what to expect, maybe the big guy had come up with some new trick for her to do with her accelerator. What she hadn’t expected was Winston producing a new box of some of her things from before the Slipstream incident.

“I was having a look around in storage for something else and I located another one of your boxes that we kept. I hope you don’t mind that I looked through it and I think you’ll want to see what’s inside.” Winston spoke as he handed over the box, “But I think you’ll want to open it alone in your quarters.” Lena raised her brow at that, not sure what could be so important that she needed to have a look through it alone but thanked him and headed back to her quarters.

She took a seat on the edge of the bed, opened up the box beside her and began sifting through the contents. It only took a few moments for Lena to realise why Winston had suggested she open up the box alone. First, she found the pictures. They were pictures of Lena and Amélie at different Overwatch events, one at a birthday party for Gérard where Lena was doing bunny ears behind Amélie’s head, another at some sort of Gala event where Amélie was in some expensive dress that she had bought for the occasion. Her hands began to tremble when she pulled out a scarf from the bottom of the box, it was one that Amélie had bought for her a long time ago. The box was largely made up of things that she had shared with Amélie one way or another. She took the scarf, hugged it to her chest and cried.

 


	4. Chapter 4

It had been over a year since Lena was pulled back out of the Slipstream by Winston and Angela. In that time she had gotten very good at hiding behind a mask called Tracer, turning into the persona everyone knew from the Overwatch posters and covering up the pain she still felt after being lost in the Slipstream and losing Amélie. Most of her fellow Overwatch agents fell for it; the only people who saw through it were Winston and Angela who knew to ask her how she was _really_ feeling.

This new persona of the bubbly and overwhelmingly positive Tracer had come in handy many times in the past several months. Winston had let it slip to Lena that Morrison had all but given up on searching for her, cutting off the funds for Winston’s search until she finally began appearing so often in the Overwatch base that he couldn’t deny she was still alive. Anytime that man existed anywhere near her, she wanted to rip his head off and shove it so far up his ass he wouldn’t know what hit him, but she used her persona as Tracer in order to keep the anger at bay. Morrison didn’t even realise how much Lena hated him, her acting had really improved.

After a particular bad night of sleep, or lack of, Lena managed to force herself out of bed. She had agreed to meet with Angela in thirty minutes in the med bay. It gave her just enough time to get out bed, have a quick shower and head down to see her. She knew Angela would want to talk about her progress with moving on from Amélie and finally she had something to deliver, some actual progress.

“Hiya Angie,” She grinned at the blonde as she entered the med bay, the doctor was sitting behind her desk that was covered in a mountain of books and papers as always when she got herself into deep research for a new project, “You want me to come back another time, luv?” She asked, giving Angela an out, for her to continue working.

“No, no, it’s alright. Come and take a seat and I’ll activate the privacy protocols.” Angela replied, smiling up at her from where she sat before typing away at the keyboard to lock the doors and turn off the cameras to give Lena the privacy she needed with these sessions. Once Lena took her seat, she continued, “So, it’s been a few weeks since I last got to see you, have you made any progress on what we discussed?” Lena’s grin faded only slightly as she began to mentally turn off the persona that was Tracer to talk honestly with Angela.

“I have, actually, went on a few dates while I was back in London. Met a nice girl called Emily. She’s an aerospace engineer and super normal, I’m sure you’d approve.” Angela looked at her with surprise obvious on her face, she had been encouraging Lena for months to just consider it and give it a try, telling her that she didn’t have to commit to anything if she wasn’t comfortable. Lena, however, had been steadfast in her refusal to think about it, not ready to give up on the idea that Amélie could still be out there somewhere. She hadn’t wanted to begin dating someone else and have given up on looking for Amélie to find out she was still alive. Angela had slowly convinced her otherwise.

“And how did those dates go?” Angela quickly recovered, wiping the surprise off her face in hopes to keep encouraging the progress Lena was making.

“Went well. It was awkward on the first one, she kept trying to make physical contact and I was super uncomfortable, felt like I was cheating or something. Eventually after five more dates with her, I uh..” Lena cleared her throat and hoped Angela would pick up the meaning on her own, “Stayed the night. She was real nice about it.” Angela gave her a warm smile.

“I’m really glad to hear that Lena, it sounds like you made good use of the leave you took.” The rest of their session was taken up by talking about how she was coping with her insomnia and nightmares, discussing how her medication was working and how she was connecting with the other Overwatch agents.

When the hour was up, she reported upstairs to the main conference room on base for a new mission briefing that Morrison was going to be giving. It was her first mission after several weeks on leave that she had been forced by Angela to take. She was itching to get back out there, needing a good distraction. She took a seat at the conference table and flicked through her phone as she waited for the others to slowly turn up for the meeting.

Lena smiled to herself as she began to scroll through some of the text messages that had been sent between her and Emily. The redheaded engineer was incredibly kind and understanding, letting Lena take things between them at her own pace. Emily had figured out on her own that there was a reason she was hesitant for things to go anywhere between them and gave her the space she needed. She was also flexible about Lena’s occupation, knowing she wouldn’t always be in London and the risks that came with the missions she went on. It made Lena feel guilty, like the redhead was better than she could deserve.

Morrison began his briefing and brought Lena out of her thoughts, talking everyone through the mission parameters and goals, who would be taking care of what while out on the field. She waited patiently for Morrison to get around to giving her instructions but it seemed not to come causing her to furrow her brow in confusion until he changed the topic.

“Now, we need to discuss the likelihood that Talon’s newest agent will be there to interfere with our mission. All we have in the way of intel is that her name is Widowmaker and she’s a sniper, a very good one in fact. She might even be better than Captain Amari with the kill count she’s racking up. I want Tracer to keep an eye on the skies and if you see her, I want you to run interference on her, prevent her from being able to take any shots and gather some more intel if you can. What she looks like, what kind of weapon she’s using, any other identifying information, anything you can gather I want it.” Lena nodded with an arrogant smirk, flanking and distractions were what she was best at. She certainly was going to give this ‘Widowmaker’ a run for her money.

                                                                          _x_

 

The transport rolled out the following afternoon, taking Tracer, Mercy, Morrison and a few other agents out to Numbani. The mission itself wasn’t particularly complicated, they may not even have needed Tracer to be there except for the sneaking suspicion that Talon’s newest sniper would attempt to stop their escort of the payload. At first it went off without a hitch, it was disappointing, Tracer had gotten herself excited at the thought of duking it out with a new enemy and finding out what they can do. It had been so long since she faced someone new.

It wasn’t until a crack of thunder was heard from the sky and one of her fellow agents went down that was brought back to reality, racing off in a series of blinks to go find her new playmate. Tracer blinked from rooftop to rooftop, looking for the sniper’s nest when she finally saw the glint of a scope reflecting the sun.

The sniper turned out to be a woman, just like they had speculated by the moniker she was using. She was tall, her height accentuated by the heeled boots she was wearing, with long dark hair in a high, tight ponytail. Her skin was some shade of blue, _periwinkle maybe?,_ and Tracer could see a tattoo of a black widow spider on the sniper’s upper back, exposed through the back of her reflective purple cat suit. The way the suit hugged so tightly at her skin made Tracer raise her brow, it seemed impractical at best. Widowmaker hadn’t seemed to have noticed her presence yet and she was going to take advantage of it, Overwatch needed all the information they could get on this woman.

Widowmaker’s face was obscured by a combination of looking through her scope and the recon visor that rested on her forehead; it had eight red lights that were clearly made to imitate a spider. Tracer rolled her eyes at the theme that this woman seemed to be going for. Tracer began to make her way in a crouch over to the sniper, trying to get a closer look without giving her position away. As she got closer to her target she noticed a tattoo along the sniper’s forearm, _Cauchemar? Nightmare? ,_ Tracer scoffed, _How tacky._ It seemed like her how ensemble was put together by someone who read some of those terrible, old comic books.

“Whatcha lookin’ at?” Lena asked with a giggle. She was done just looking at the sniper from a distance; it was time to find out what she was capable of. Tracer had managed to sneak right up behind her, only inches away from touching her.     

Tracer blinked away in time to avoid the sniper bringing her elbow back to strike at her face, narrowly avoiding having her nose broken. She watched as Widowmaker launched a grapple hook from a gauntlet on her wrist and pulled herself out of where she had been lying. Her rifle changed into an assault rifle mode and she began taking shots at Tracer which she had to blink to dodge before firing her own back. The sniper still had her visor covering the upper half of her face, Tracer needed to get close enough to force her to reveal her face, she needed all the information she could get her hands on.

The Overwatch agent hid behind a vent on the roof, biding her time as she came up with a plan and waiting for an opening to strike. Tracer listened closely as Widowmaker stopped firing her rifle and heard the grapple hook being engaged again, the wirring of the cable as the sniper swung from the roof of this building to the next. She decided to take this as her opening, blinking around the vent and across the gap between buildings and latching onto the sniper, arms around her waist before she finished swinging across.

The pair rolled across the surface of the roof, kicking up pieces of gravel as they went. Tracer knew her shoulder would be bruised from the impact of the fall but it would be worth it in the end. With her right foot, Tracer pushed off the ground on their last roll and forced her way on top of the sniper, straddling her hips in attempt to corner her into close quarters combat. She took a few swings at Widowmaker which she managed to block before her visor slid open, exposing her face to the Overwatch agent.

Tracer felt her heart stop, the sniper’s skin was blue and her eyes were golden but it was _her_. It was Amélie, she could recognise that face anywhere. She couldn’t do much more than stare down at the woman beneath her, her arms lamely falling to her sides as her assault stopped. Widowmaker – _no, Amélie_ – narrowed her eyes up at Tracer before taking advantage of the Overwatch agent’s being distracted. Tracer felt her back hit the ground and watched the sniper scramble her way up from where she had been underneath her.

She barely managed an awkward stumble up from the ground as she felt the tears begin to flow from her eyes and fill up her goggles, misting the plastic and clouding her vision. Just as she began to get to her feet, the butt of Amélie’s rifle slammed into the side of her face and fracturing the plastic of her goggles. Tracer cried out and fell back to her knees, clutching the side of her face. She could barely see through the tears that the Frenchwoman was walking away from her, planning to leave her on the rooftop and escape.

“Amélie, wait!” The sniper stopped in her tracks, turning on her heel and return to where Tracer knelt on the roof. Tracer pushed her goggles up to clear her eyes of tears as Amélie stood over her, anger flaring in her golden eyes.

“Do _not_ call me that.” The sniper snarled, lips curling back and baring some teeth as she did.

“What did they do to you, Amélie? Let me help you!” Tracer cried out as she forced herself to her feet. The sniper gave her no further warning, firing three bullets into the Overwatch agent, two into her left knee and one into her right foot before striking Tracer’s face with the back end of her rifle for the second time. She stood over Tracer as she crumbled to the ground, unable to bring herself to recall, everything feeling far away and unreal. _Recall, you idiot, recall._ She couldn’t bring herself to move, not even reacting to the boot placed in the middle of her back.

“Sweet, foolish girl.” Amélie purred in her sultry accent before firing her grapple and disappearing, leaving Tracer face down on the rooftop, alone with her tears and injuries.

                                                                                      _x_

 

Lena had only vague memories of what happened after Amélie left her alone and bleeding on that rooftop. When she had woken up hours later in the med bay back in Switzerland, Angela had filled her in on what she couldn’t remember. When Lena had failed to respond to Morrison’s requests for a status report, Mercy had taken to the skies in order to try locating her when she finally spotted her lying face down in the gravel in a pool of her own blood. She apparently been slipping in and out of consciousness and murmuring nonsense when the doctor had found her.

Angela had used her Caduceus staff to help heal as much of the damage dealt as she could on scene to tide her over as they transported her back to Switzerland before taking her into surgery to remove bullet fragments. The bullets that had entered the top of her left knee shattered the bones and she was now in a hospital bed with both of her legs in casts, her left from above the knee and the right from below it. She was going to spend far too long in bed recovering for her liking, she needed to get back to where she had left off in her search for Amélie. She could already feel the building up of guilt that she had let herself be talked into giving up on her search for the Frenchwoman and begin seeing someone else.

Once she had woken up and Angela had filled in the gaps of what had happened, both her and Morrison began hounding for her to tell them what had happened with Widowmaker. They wanted to know how she had lost so easily in close quarters to a sniper. How she had ended up with three bullets in her and fractures in the bones in her face. Lena couldn’t bring herself to talk about it, despite Morrison’s yelling and threats. He had threatened her with all kinds of punishments, including time in an isolation cell, for her refuse to talk. It had taken both Angela and Winston to calm him down enough to back off the threats.

A few days after, Angela came back alone and sat down in the chair beside her bed in silence. Lena knew what Angela was planning to do. The doctor thought because she had managed to break through her shell after the Slipstream and after collapsing from exhaustion months ago that she would be able to do the same here, that she would be able to get Lena to open up to her. Lena knew that Angela would most likely eventually succeed and would try to deter her from searching for Amélie. She would need to stall for time as she got herself access to those files again, if she were to tell Angela, Lena knew the doctor would restrict her access through Athena.

She continued to refuse to speak about what happened to Angela or Morrison and waited until she was returned to her quarters on bedrest, finally giving her some privacy and access to technology again. Lena rested her holopad in her lap; her body propped up by pillows to provide relief and support for her injuries, and began searching through Athena’s systems. It didn’t take her long to find the files she was looking for and began downloading them to her device.

It was only forty minutes later when she was reading through the files again for the first time in months that there was a knock at the door. She closed the files on her device and put it into sleep mode before placing it on her bedside table.

“You can come in.” Lena called out, watching the door. Angela stepped inside and closed the door behind her causing Lena to furrow her brow in confusion. Normally Angela would be buried in her work at this hour, working on her research for her next project whatever it was. “What is it Angela?”

“You didn’t think I would find out about you downloading Amélie’s files?” Lena’s eyes widened at the question.

“You-you’ve been monitoring my access?” She stammered out, feeling anger bubble inside her.

“I had it set up so Athena would notify me if you ever attempted to access Amélie’s files again, so I would know if you went back to old habits.” Angela said as she turned the desk chair around to face Lena’s bed and taking a seat at it.

“Why would that be any of your business?” Lena snapped at her, clenching her fists in the bed sheets.

“Because I am both your friend and your doctor and I’m worried about you. Ever since we came back from Numbani, you’ve isolated yourself and have refused to tell us how your injuries happened. You’ve been ignoring direct orders and it’s not like you to do that Lena. Why are you suddenly looking at these files again after what happened?” Angela fixed her with a piercing stare and Lena swallowed hard, she had expected she would have a few more days before Angela would start asking her questions again. She would have never guessed that the doctor would had Athena monitor her access. She averted her eyes, trying to avoid the piercing gaze but she could still feel it even if she wasn’t matching it, it was something Angela had always been good at.

“Widowmaker…” Lena started before clenching her fists again; she didn’t know where to even start with what happened. She had wanted the time to figure out what she was going to do to find Amélie and how she would break the news to the others, particularly Angela. “Widowmaker is Amélie.” She worried her lip between her teeth, watching the doctor’s face as she processed what Lena had said.

“What do you mean by that?” Angela had gone pale, she knew what Lena meant but didn’t want to believe it.

“I mean, I got up close and personal with Widowmaker, made her show her face to me and it’s Amélie. Talon didn’t kill her when Gérard died; they kidnapped her again and turned her into whatever the hell she is now. She’s got all these tattoos and she’s got blue skin. Her eyes are golden instead of hazel. She’s different but it’s _her_. Angela, she’s _alive_.” Angela stared at her, her face blank as she twirled the pen in her hand between her fingers.

“You’re… You’re sure that it’s her?” She said at something just above a whisper.

“I think I would remember the way the woman I love looks like, Angie. As soon as I can walk on my own again, I **_will_** be getting her back. I don’t care if I have to rip every Talon agent apart limb from limb, I **_will_** rescue her.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> I am working on a continuation of this story, I'll be posting that in this series so if you want to read that, watch this space as I should be uploading the beginning of that in the next few days. Feel free to leave a comment and/or a kudos, always keen to hear feedback :D


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